ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY 


JOSEPH  H.  BARRETT 


LINCOLN.  ROOM 

UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 
LIBRARY 


MEMORIAL 

the  Class  of  1901 

founded  by 

HARLAN  HOYT  HORNER 

and 

HENRIETTA  CALHOUN  HORNER 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2012  with  funding  from 

University  of  Illinois  Urbana-Champaign 


http://www.archive.org/details/abrahamlincolnhis01barr 


^^^7^>n^^  4^vc^r£^s 


From  Portrait  by  F.  B.   Carpenter. 
Engraved  by  F.  Hatpin. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 
AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY 


BY 

JOSEPH  H.  BARRETT,  LL.D. 


ILLUSTRATED 


Vol.  I 


D.  APPLETON  AND  COMPANY 
NEW  YORK  ::  LONDON  ::  MCMXXIV 


Copyright,  1903,  by 
JOSEPH  H.  BARRETT 

All  rights  reserved 


Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America 


SB2  7.«- 


PREFACE. 


Before  the  meeting  of  the  Republican  National  Con- 
vention of  i860  I  had  undertaken,  not  of  my  own  motion 
or  at  first  willingly,  to  write  a  campaign  biography  of  its 
nominee  for  the  Presidency.  I  was  confident  that  my 
subject  would  not  be  Mr.  Seward,  but  had  no  presenti- 
ment that  the  choice  of  the  convention  would  be  Abra- 
ham Lincoln,  whom  I  had  then  never  met.  In  my  first 
interview  with  him,  soon  after  the  adjournment  of  the 
convention  (of  which  I  was  a  member),  he  earnestly  and 
even  sadly  insisted  that  there  was  no  adequate  material 
for  such  a  work  as  was  intended,  yet  he  received  me 
very  kindly,  and  showed  no  unusual  reserve  in  talking 
of  either  his  earlier  or  maturer  life.  As  to  both  periods, 
he  readily  gave  such  facts  as  my  inquiries  invited  or 
suggested;  introduced  me  to  friends  with  whom  he  had 
been  on  intimate  terms  for  more  than  twenty  years; 
and  put  me  in  the  way  of  exploring  newspaper  files 
and  legislative  journals  in  the  Illinois  State  library  for 
biographic  material. 

He  told  me  of  his  correspondence  with  one  of  his 
father's  relatives  in  Rockingham  County,  Virginia,  and 

(iii) 


iv  PREFACE. 

with  one  of  the  Lincolns  of  Massachusetts,  without 
obtaining  positive  proof  of  the  relationship  which  later 
research  has  rendered  certain.  Recognizing  that  his 
parents  were  of  humble  life,  and  ranking  himself  with 
plain  people,  he  distinctly  claimed  to  be  of  a  stock 
which,  though  it  had  produced  no  man  of  great  emi- 
nence, had  always  been  of  good  repute  in  general  as  to 
both  character  and  capacity.  At  my  request  and  in  my 
presence  (May  24,  1861)  he  sat  for  a  daguerreotype, 
which  was  lithographically  reproduced  for  the  volume 
then  in  preparation,  published  the  following  month. 

My  personal  intercourse  with  Lincoln  was  continued 
later  at  Springfield,  as  well  as  during  part  of  his  journey 
to  Washington  the  next  winter,  and  in  that  city  thence- 
forward during  the  rest  of  his  days.  While  preparing 
to  add  a  second  part  to  the  biography,  for  the  canvass 
of  1864,  access  was  given  me  to  the  needed  official 
papers.  With  permission,  copies  were  made  of  valuable 
documents,  not  all  of  which  were  then  used,  including 
autograph  letters  and  papers  of  the  President,  General 
Scott,  and  General  McClellan,  not  then  generally  acces- 
sible. Additional  autograph  manuscripts  of  Lincoln, 
Chase,  and  others  are  now  printed  for  the  first  time. 

In  the  summer  of  1865  there  was  added  to  the  two 
parts  thus  produced  a  third  and  longer  one,  making  a 
volume  of  over  eight  hundred  pages.  With  all  its 
defects,  the  book  had  an  extraordinary  sale.     A  more 


PREFACE.  v 

deliberate  and  complete  biography  was  then  intended 
by  the  author  as  soon  as  freedom  from  interfering  duties 
would  permit.  That  time  was  long  in  coming,  but  the 
purpose  thus  deferred  was  never  abandoned.  It  is  now 
fulfilled,  with  the  advantage  gained  from  constantly 
accumulating  materials,  and  with  the  aid  of  new  lights 
and  changed  conditions  favorable  to  a  more  dispas- 
sionate estimate  of  the  men  and  events  of  one  of  the 
most  exciting  and  momentous  periods  in  human  history. 
A  reproduction  of  Halpin's  engraving  of  the  portrait 
of  Lincoln  by  F.  B.  Carpenter  serves  as  frontispiece  to 
the  first  volume,  with  the  artist's  approval,  given  (March 
27,  1900)  a  few  weeks  before  his  decease.  Of  the  orig- 
inal painting,  President  Lincoln  said:  "  I  feel  that  there 
is  more  of  me  in  this  portrait  than  in  any  representation 
which  has  ever  been  made."  Chief  Justice  Chase  wrote 
(in  1866):  "  The  likeness  is  very  faithful  and  lifelike. 
Mr.  Lincoln's  countenance  had  great  mobility,  and  its 
expression  varied  much.  I  have  seen  him  often  with 
that  which  you  have  given  him.  I  think  it  also  his 
best."  The  frontispiece  of  the  second  volume  is  a  pho- 
togravure of  the  daguerreotype  taken  just  after  his 
nomination  at  Chicago  —  lithographed  for  a  campaign 
biography,  but  otherwise  never  before  published. 

J.  H.  BARRETT. 

LovEland,  Ohio,  November,  1903. 


Table  of  Contents. 


CHAPTER    I.                                   pags 
Lineage  —  Lincoln  Migrations i 

CHAPTER    II. 

Parentage  —  Childhood  in  Kentucky  —  Youth  in 
Indiana  *j 

CHAPTER    III. 

Removal  to  Illinois — Captain  in  Black  Hawk  War 
—  Postmaster,  Surveyor,  Legislator  —  Menard 
Legends  25 

CHAPTER    IV. 

Admitted  to  the  Bar  —  Removal  to  Springfield  — 
Law  —  Politics  —  Personalities 48 

CHAPTER    V. 

Mary  Todd  —  Broken  Engagement  —  Depression  — 
Visit  to  Kentucky  —  Letter  to  Miss  Speed  —  Law 
Case 61 

CHAPTER    VI. 

Temperance  Address  —  Difficulty  with  Shields  — 
Marriage  —  Congressional  Aspirations  —  Annex- 
ation of  Texas  —  War  with  Mexico  —  Elected  to 
Congress 71 

(vii) 


viii  TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER    VII.  page 

In  Congress  —  Speech  on  the  Mexican  War  — 
Favors  Nomination  of"  General  Taylor — Speeches 
on  Internal  Improvements  and  Presidential 
Nominees  —  Wilmot  Proviso 84 

CHAPTER   VIII. 

In  Congress  —  Speeches  in  New  England  —  Second 
Session  —  Slavery  Turmoil  —  No  Office  from 
Taylor  —  Whig  Candidate  for  Senator 96 

CHAPTER   IX. 

Professional  Work  and  Ways  —  Home  and  Family 
—  Eulogy  on  Henry  Clay  —  Railway  and  Reaper 
Cases  no 

CHAPTER   X. 
The  "  Nebraska  "  Surprise ...........<>..<>.  123 

CHAPTER   XL 

First  Anti-Nebraska  Campaign  —  Peoria  Speech  — 
Trumbull  Elected  Senator 130 

CHAPTER   XII. 

Anti-Nebraska  Coalition  —  Kansas  Conflict  —  Re- 
publican Party  Organized  —  Fremont  Beaten 
by  Buchanan  —  Dred  Scott  Decision  —  Cases  in 
Court  139 

CHAPTER  XIII. 

The  Lecompton  Constitution  —  Another  Demo- 
cratic Schism  —  Lincoln  a  Candidate  for  Sen- 
ator —  "  House-Divided  "  Speech 1  k6 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS.  ix 

CHAPTER    XIV.                                  pagjS 
The  Lincoln-Douglas  Debate 170 

CHAPTER    XV. 

On  the  Verge  oe  a  New  Epoch  —  Letters  and  Ad- 
dresses—  Incidents  and  Portents  —  John  Brown 
at  Harper's  Ferry  —  Chaos  in  Congress 196 

CHAPTER   XVI. 

The  Chicago  Convention  —  Lincoln  Nominated  eor 
President    216 

CHAPTER   XVII. 

The  Presidential  Canvass  —  A  Quadrilateral  Con- 
test  226 

CHAPTER    XVIII. 

South  Carolina  Leads  a  Revolt — Secession  Tumult 
in  the  Gule  States  —  The  President-Elect  Bides 
His  Time 236 

CHAPTER    XIX. 

Embarrassments  oe  President  Buchanan  —  Major 
Robert  Anderson  and  Fort  Sumter  —  Plans  eor 
Pacification  —  "  Confederate   States  " 250 

CHAPTER   XX. 
On  the  Way  to  the  White  House 260 

CHAPTER   XXI. 

Inauguration  —  Cabinet  and  Diplomatic  Appoint- 
ments     277 


x  TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER   XXII.  pAGE; 

First  Forty  Days  —  The  Fort  Sumter  Problem  ....  285 

CHAPTER  XXIII. 

Loyal  Uprising  —  President  Lincoln's  Proclama- 
tion —  Four  More  States  Revolt  —  The  Capital 
Isolated   295 

CHAPTER   XXIV. 

Taking  Up  the  Burden  op  War  —  President  and 
Congress 309 

CHAPTER   XXV. 
A  Battle  —  Outlook  at  Home  and  Abroad 331 

CHAPTER  XXVI. 

Congress  —  War-Making  on  Slave  Soil  —  Appairs 
in  the  West  —  Army  and  Navy  Operations  on 
the  Coast . . . 344 

CHAPTER    XXVII. 

Army  op  the  Potomac  —  Ball's  Blupp  —  McClellan 
Succeeds  Scott  —  Message  to  Congress  —  The 
Trent  Trouble .\  .*,*.... . 362 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


VOLUME  I. 

Portrait  oe  Abraham  Lincoln,  from  Portrait  by 

Carpenter,  Engraved  by  Halpin Frontispiece 

Facsimile  oe  Letter  from  Salmon  P.  Chase.  .  .Page  207 


LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 


CHAPTER    I. 

Lineage  —  Lincoln  Migrations. 

President  Lincoln's  grandfather,  a  Kentucky  pioneer 
who  bore  the  same  name  and  met  a  like  fate,  was  the 
son  of  John  Lincoln,  a  Virginia  planter  of  good  estate, 
who  had  removed  from  Pennsylvania  to  the  Shenandoah 
Valley  many  years  before  the  Revolution.  The  first  of 
this  line  born  in  America  was  Mordecai  Lincoln,  grand- 
father of  John,  of  Virginia,  and  son  of  Samuel  Lincoln,  a 
native  of  England,  who  was  one  of  the  early  settlers  of 
Massachusetts.  The  surname  is  ancient  and  honorable, 
having  a  common  origin  with  the  name  of  an  English 
county,  derived  from  that  of  a  Roman  settlement  on  the 
site  of  Lincoln  City.  The  last  syllable,  with  its  trouble- 
some mute,  is  a  shortening  of  the  Latin  colonia.  There 
are  instances  in  early  New  England  documents  in  which 
a  scribe  has  written  "  Linklon  "  or  "  Linkhorn  "  for  Lin- 
coln, but  none  is  found  in  which  an  autograph  signature 
is  thus  deformed.  The  American  general  after  whom 
one  of  the  three  original  counties  of  Kentucky  was 


2         LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

named  used  to  be  called  "  Linkhorn "  by  Southern 
soldiers.  The  same  bad  habit  once  prevailed  more  or 
less  in  England.  On  a  pillar  of  the  old  cathedral  of 
Winchester  a  small  plate  of  brass,  with  an  engraved 
inscription,  commemorates  a  martial  hero  born  in 
"  Linkhorne  sheire."  * 

Samuel  Lincoln,  a  native  of  Norfolk  County,  Eng- 
land, was  eighteen  years  old  when,  in  1637,  he  settled  at 
Hingham,  on  Massachusetts  Bay.  An  older  brother, 
Thomas  "  the  weaver,"  was  already  there,  and  another 
brother,  Daniel,  came  near  the  same  time.  There  were 
other  Lincolns  less  nearly  related  to  Samuel  among  the 
first  proprietors  there,  including  Thomas  "  the  cooper," 
from  whom  descended  General  Benjamin  Lincoln  of  the 
Revolution.  All  appear  to  have  been  good  citizens  of 
the  early  New  England  type  —  plain,  industrious,  relig- 
ious people,  well  esteemed  by  their  neighbors.  They  or 
their  immediate  descendants  were  connected  by  mar- 
riage with  a  good  share  of  the  families  in  a  community 
honored  by  many  names  of  distinction.  Of  their  Eng- 
lish ancestry  little  is  definitely  known. 

Hingham,  beautiful  in  situation,  on  the  southern 
shore  of  the  bay,  a  few  miles  from  Boston,  had  from  the 
first  a  double  industrial  life  of  land  and  sea  —  not  only 
farming  and  mechanic  arts,  but  shipping  also,  for  there 
were  fisheries  as  well  as  coast  traffic  and  travel,  or  even 
remoter  ventures.  The  original  settler  did  not  always 
stick  to  the  trade  he  had  learned;  there  was  a  craving  for 
independent  tenure  of  land;  and  no  virtuous  method  of 
gain  was  despised.     If  all  came  here  to  enjoy  freedom  of 

*  Milner's  History  of  Winchester,  II.,  75-6. 


LINEAGE  — LINCOLN  MIGRATIONS.        3 

conscience,  few  lacked  equal  zeal  to  better  their  worldly 
condition.  Samuel  Lincoln  had  been  apprenticed  to 
a  weaver,  and  may  have  followed  this  calling  for  a 
time,  but  we  find  him  later  described  as  a  mariner.  His 
oldest  son,  Samuel  junior,  was  a  carpenter,  held  local 
office,  and  served  as  a  trooper  in  the  King  Philip  War, 
His  great-grandson,  Levi  Lincoln,  a  Harvard  graduate, 
was  Attorney  General  under  President  Jefferson,  and 
declined  an  appointment  to  the  Supreme  Bench  from 
President  Madison.  He  had  a  brother  Abraham,  of 
Worcester,  who  was  a  man  of  local  note,  and  two  sons, 
who  were  New  England  Governors  —  Levi  Lincoln, 
junior,  of  Massachusetts,  and  Enoch  Lincoln,  of  Maine. 
Another  son  of  the  immigrant  Samuel,  Mordecai 
Lincoln  (1657-1727),  was  a  busy  and  prosperous  man  — 
blacksmith,  iron  founder,  owner  of  mills  and  lands  — 
and  became  one  of  the  richest  colonists  of  his  time.  By 
his  wife  Sarah,  daughter  of  Abraham  Jones,  of  Hull,  he 
had  three  sons  —  Mordecai,  junior,  Abraham,  and  Isaac, 
—  and  by  a  second  marriage,  late  in  life,  he  had  a  son 
Jacob,  born  in  171 1.  Not  far  from  this  date  the  two 
oldest  brothers,  already  of  age,  sought  new  homes  in 
New  Jersey,  afterward  crossing  the  Delaware  —  their 
local  relation  to  Philadelphia  being,  all  the  while,  like 
that  of  their  immediate  progenitors  to  Boston.  In  spite 
of  Puritan  and  Quaker  antagonism  there  was  no  impass- 
able gulf  between  the  two  communities.  A  Harvard 
graduate,  who  was  a  school  teacher  in  Hingham  when 
these  two  Lincoln  brothers  were  boys,  and  who  was 
the  son  of  a  partner  of  their  father,  had  founded  the  first 
Presbyterian  Church  in  Philadelphia;  and  here  a  youth 


4         LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

from  Boston,  named  Benjamin  Franklin,  for  some  time 
attended  on  his  ministration  —  not  altogether  with 
profit.  * 

The  second  Mordecai  married  Hannah,  daughter  of 
Judge  Richard  Salter,  of  Monmouth  County,  New 
Jersey.  John  Bowne,  a  near  relative  of  her  mother,  left 
an  estate  substantial  enough  to  support  a  protracted 
contest  over  its  distribution,  Mordecai  Lincoln  being 
one  of  the  defendants.  Disposing  of  his  mining  inter- 
ests in  Chester  County,  Pennsylvania,  in  1725,  he 
bought  and  settled  on  a  large  tract  of  land  in  what  is  now 
Berks  County,  where  he  died  in  1736.  He  fraternized 
with  the  Society  of  Friends,  was  a  man  of  good  condi- 
tion, and  in  legal  papers  was  styled  "  gentleman."  In 
his  will  he  bequeathed  to  his  son  John  three  hundred 
acres  of  land  in  New  Jersey,  derived  from  the  latter's 
maternal  grandfather,  Richard  Salter,  and  divided  the 
Berks  County  tract  between  three  sons  by  a  second  mar- 
riage. The  youngest  of  these,  Abraham,  resided  all  his 
life  in  the  house  his  father  had  built  near  the  city  of 
Reading;  served  several  terms  in  the  Legislature,  and 
was  a  member  of  the  Convention  which  framed  the  first 
Constitution  of  Pennsylvania. 

In  this  region  a  generation  of  Lincolns  and  Boones 
grew  up  together,  and  the  families  were  allied  by  mar- 
riage. Before  Daniel  Boone  removed  with  his  father 
to  the  Yadkin  River  country,  in  North  Carolina,  John 
Lincoln  settled  in  the  Upper  Shenandoah  Valley,  where 


*  The  preacher  in  question,  of  whom  Franklin  writes  in  his 
autobiography  without  giving  his  name,  was  the  Rev.  Jedidiah 
Andrews. 


LINEAGE  — LINCOLN  MIGRATIONS.        5 

he  bought  six  hundred  acres  of  land  near  Harrisonburg, 
in  the  original  county  of  Augusta,  of  which  the  chief 
town  was  Staunton,  just  across  the  Blue  Ridge  from 
Charlottesville,  not  then  boasting  of  its  University  or 
its  Jefferson.  The  next  three  generations  of  this  family 
were  to  differ  widely  in  environment  from  the  three 
which  preceded.  The  nearest  capital  towns  were  Phil- 
adelphia—  accessible  by  wild  and  tedious  ways,  across 
the  Potomac  and  South  Mountain  —  and  Williams- 
burg, Virginia,  to  which  the  journey  was  compara- 
tively easy.  On  the  west  were  the  great  Alleghanies, 
and  a  world  unknown  beyond.  Here  pioneer  life  was 
to  begin  anew,  without  advantage  from  nearness  of 
seaboard  or  city. 

John  Lincoln  lived  until  1792,  and  had  five  sons: 
John  and  Jacob,  who  remained  in  Virginia,  and  Abra- 
ham, Isaac,  and  Thomas,  who  in  early  manhood  moved 
on  into  remoter  wilds  across  the  mountains.  Abraham 
entered  three  separate  tracts  of  land  in  Kentucky,  on 
one  of  which,  in  what  is  now  Bullitt  County,  he  settled 
about  the  year  1784.  Here  the  rifle-shot  of  an  Indian, 
who  had  stolen  upon  him  unawares  while  at  work,  sud- 
denly ended  his  days.  His  widow  and  their  five  chil- 
dren, all  of  whom  were  born  in  Virginia,  thereupon 
moved  to  the  neighborhood  of  relatives  in  Washington 
County.  The  oldest  son,  Mordecai,  aged  about  four- 
teen at  the  time  of  his  father's  death,  was  legal  heir 
to  his  titles  of  land  —  a  nominal  estate  of  seventeen 
hundred  acres,  promising  to  be  of  a  value  greater  than 
the  estate  of  any  of  his  American  ancestors,  but  prov- 
ing, through  conflicting  or  defective  records  and  sur- 
veys, to  be  of  little  real  worth.     He  became  a  man  of 


6         LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

prominence  and  good  standing.  *  Josiah,  the  second 
son,  early  removed  to  Harrison  County,  Indiana;  and 
two  daughters,  Mary  and  Nancy,  married  and  settled  in 
Kentucky.  The  youngest  son,  Thomas,  a  mere  child 
when  the  family  came  from  Virginia,  was  the  father  of 
President  Lincoln. 


*"  I  remember  to  have  heard  my  uncle,  Judge  Paul  I.  Booker, 
remark  to  some  hotheads  when  Lincoln  was  first  elected  President: 
'I  do  not  know  Abraham  Lincoln,  but  if  he  is  as  good  a  man  as 
his  uncle  Mordecai,  whom  I  served  with  in  the  Legislature  of  Ken- 
tucky, you  need  have  no  fears.'  " — W.  F.  Booker,  Clerk  of  Wash- 
ington County,  Kentucky,  to  the  writer,  March  26,  1895. 


CHAPTER  II. 
1 809- 1 830. 

Parentage  —  Childhood  in  Kentucky  —  Youth  in  Indiana. 

Much  has  been  inconsiderately  written  and  said 
about  Thomas  Lincoln.  The  violent  death  of  his 
father  suddenly  and  sadly  deranged  the  affairs  of  the 
family,  and  the  loss  of  paternal  care  was  especially 
unfortunate  for  one  of  such  tender  age.  As  he  grew 
up,  he  became  more  unsettled  and  less  thrifty  than  his 
brothers.  Once,  before  he  came  to  his  majority,  he 
went  off  to  find  his  uncle  Isaac  in  Eastern  Tennes- 
see; succeeded  in  his  quest;  and  worked  for  a  year  or 
more  on  his  uncle's  farm.*  Later,  he  was  employed 
for  a  time  in  Elizabethtown,  Hardin  County,  where 
he  learned  carpentry,  and  perhaps  cabinet-making,  in 
which  he  afterward  showed  some  skill.  He  was  not 
lacking  in  an  honest  inclination  to  earn  his  own  living, 
though  he  was  too  readily  content  with  what  barely 
sufficed  for  the  simplest  wants.  Reared  to  labor,  much 
in  the  open  air,  and  used  to  hardship,  he  had  great 
physical  strength,  with  a  certain  robust  relish  for  the 
rough  life  of  the  border.  He  had  no  opportunity  for 
even   rudimentary   schooling,   yet   he   could   write   his 


*It  was  probably  a  son  of  this  uncle  whose  name  appears  in 
the  following  quotation  from  the  family  record  of  a  noted  per- 
sonage: "  Married,  at  Greenville,  by  Mordecai  Lincoln,  Esq.,  on 
the  17th  day  of  May,  1827,  Andrew  Johnson  to  Eliza  McCardal." 

(7) 


8  LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

name  legibly,  as  proved  by  his  signature  to  the  bond 
given  on  procuring  his  marriage  license.  He  was  a 
religious  man,  with  human  limitations;  companionable, 
having  a  store  of  shrewd  maxims  and  apt  stories;  and 
withal  one  of  those  peaceable  men  who  are  not  to  be 
scornfully  trifled  with.  An  octogenarian  clerk  of  court, 
who  knew  him  during  his  residence  in  Elizabethtown, 
said  more  than  fifty  years  afterward:  "  He  was  a  hale, 
hearty-looking  man,  of  medium  height,  rather  clumsy 
in  his  gait,  and  had  a  kind-looking  face.  He  was  a 
moderately  good  house-carpenter,  some  of  his  work 
remaining  to  this  day  in  the  neighborhood.  He  was 
quite  illiterate,  and  was  regarded  as  a  very  honest  man." 
On  the  1 2th  of  June,  1806,  when  in  his  twenty-ninth 
year,  Thomas  Lincoln  was  married  to  Nancy  Hanks, 
six  years  younger,  whom  he  had  known  from  her  child- 
hood. The  wedding  was  at  "  Beechland,"  near  Spring- 
field, in  Washington  County  —  the  place  of  Richard 
Berry,  in  whose  family  she  had  lived  as  a  ward  for  many 
years.  It  appears  from  The  Genealogy  of  the  Hanks 
Family* — the  best  authority  known  on  this  subject  — 
that  she  was  born  in  Amelia  County,  Virginia,  Feb- 
ruary 5,  1784,  and  was  the  youngest  of  nine  children  of 
Joseph  Hanks  by  his  wife  Nancy,  whose  maiden  name 
was  Shipley.  The  father  died  in  Nelson  County,  Ken- 
tucky, in  1793,  and  his  will,  of  that  date,  naming  all  his 
children,  is  on  file  at  Bardstown.  Her  mother  dying 
not  long  after,  Nancy  went  to  live  with  Mrs.  Berry,  her 
mother's  sister.     This  definite  account  of  the  parentage 


*MS.,  compiled  by  Mrs.  Caroline  Hanks  Hitchcock,  of  Cam- 
bridge, Mass.,  to  whom  thanks  are  due  for  information  kindly  fur- 
nished to  the  author. 


PARENTAGE— CHILDHOOD— YOUTH.      9 

and  early  life  of  President  Lincoln's  mother  sufficiently 
disposes  of  an  unfortunate  hallucination  of  Mr.  Hern- 
don.  According  to  the  personal  description  of  Nancy 
Hanks  by  those  who  knew  her, —  all  substantially  agree- 
ing, with  one  or  two  exceptions,  due  to  mistaken  iden- 
tity,—  she  was  slight  in  form  and  rather  above  the 
medium  height  of  her  sex;  her  features  were  regular, 
her  hair  dark,  and  her  brown  eyes  bright  and  gentle. 
She  had  a  ready  sense  of  the  ludicrous,  and  there  was 
a  vein  of  pleasantry  in  her  talk.  She  was  amiable, 
devout,  and  naturally  cheerful.  Though  living  where 
education  was  slighted,  she  early  learned  to  read  —  a 
slender  fact  on  which  weighty  events  were  to  depend. 

For  a  year  or  two  the  wedded  pair  lived  in  Elizabeth- 
town,  where  their  first  child,  Sarah,  was  born,  in  1807. 
The  carpentry  which  detained  them  here  being  finished, 
the  next  year  they  went  to  live  in  another  part  of  the 
county,  occupying  land  in  Nolin  Creek  valley,  near 
"Hodgen's  Mills" — bought  before  their  marriage,  and 
known  to-day  as  Rock  Spring  Farm.  Here,  in  a  log 
cabin,  their  son  Abraham  was  born  on  Sunday,  the  12th 
day  of  February,  1809. 

Much  of  the  State  was  yet  as  wild  and  woody  as 
when  the  Lincolns  first  crossed  the  mountains.  The 
third  President  was  still  in  office,  and  the  Emperor,  of 
whom  he  had  lately  purchased  "  Louisiana,"  was  at  the 
height  of  his  power.  This  very  year  Bolivar,  the  South 
American  Liberator,  visited  England  and  our  Republic, 
intent  upon  political  schemes  which  were  to  have  fruit 
on  his  own  continent  and  in  Mexico.  Henry  Clay 
was  just  rising  to  high  rank  in  the  party  called  Repub- 
lican, whose  creed  embraced  the  Resolutions  of  '98. 


io        LINCOLN  AND  HTS  PRESIDENCY. 

But  what  relation  could  these  things  have  to  the  future 
of  a  child  born  in  a  corner  so  remote  and  of  parents  so 
obscure? 

A  noted  Illinois  lawyer  (Mr.  U.  F.  Linder)  said  in 
1865:  "I  was  born  within  ten  miles  of  the  birthplace 
of  Abraham  Lincoln,  only  a  month  later  than  he.  I 
knew  his  father  and  his  relatives  in  Kentucky.  They 
were  a  good  family.  They  were  poor, —  the  very  poor- 
est people  of  the  middle  class,  I  might  say, —  but  they 
were  true." 

Of  this  home  on  the  Nolin,  young  Abraham  was  to 
remember  little  or  nothing,  for  in  three  or  four  years 
the  family  moved  to  another  farm  near  the  confluence 
of  Knob  Creek  with  Rolling  Fork;  several  miles  east- 
ward. The  latter  stream,  considerably  larger  than  Nolin 
Creek,  from  which  it  is  separated  by  highlands  towered 
with  a  series  of  far-looking  knobs,  runs  in  an  opposite 
direction,  seeking  Salt  River  and  the  Ohio.  His  parents 
still  had  like  relations  as  before  with  Hodgenville  and 
the  Baptist  Church  organized  there  by  the  first  settlers. 
In  his  second  home  he  passed  the  more  conscious  years 
of  his  early  childhood. 

Almost  his  earliest  recollections  were  of  sitting  with 
his  sister  at  his  mother's  feet,  listening  as  she  read  from 
a  book  or  told  tales  of  imagination  or  experience. 
Here  his  education  began,  and  when  still  quite  young 
he  eagerly  read  Robinson  Crusoe,  Aesop's  Fables,  Pil- 
grim's Progress,  and  other  books  common  at  plain  fire- 
sides in  the  older  States,  but  then  rare  in  Kentucky.  No 
public  instruction  was  then  available.  For  a  time  he  and 
his  sister  walked  a  great  distance  to  attend  the  school 
kept  by  a  Catholic  priest  named  Zachariah  Riney  — 


PARENTAGE— CHILDHOOD— YOUTH.     1 1 

possibly  a  precursor  of  the  Trappists,  who  founded  the 
noted  monastery  at  Gethsemane,  in  that  region.  Later, 
he  in  like  manner  became  a  pupil  of  Caleb  Hazel,  his 
mother's  cousin-in-law,  who  occasionally  exercised  his 
gifts  as  a  Baptist  minister.  Of  both  these  teachers  he 
always  retained  pleasant  remembrance,  though  he  was 
under  their  tuition  but  a  few  months  in  all.  He  was 
not  yet  eight  years  old  when  he  left  Kentucky.  One 
of  the  last  incidents  he  recalled  of  his  life  there  was 
accompanying  his  mother  in  her  parting  visit  to  the 
grave  of  her  youngest  child,  a  son  who  died  in  infancy. 

Hard  times  came  with  the  War  of  1812,  and  lasted 
long.  As  some  relief,  the  Government  offered  its  wild 
lands  north  of  the  Ohio  to  new  settlers  on  credit. 
There  were  serious  troubles,  too,  about  land  titles  in 
Kentucky;  nor  was  its  labor  system  kind  to  people  who 
labored.  Slavery  was  now  firmly  established  there,  and 
the  man  of  small  means  had  less  chance  of  rising  than 
of  lapsing  into  the  scorned  class  of  "  poor  whites." 
Thomas  Lincoln  chose  to  live  in  a  free  State.  That 
this  was  one  of  his  motives  for  a  change  was  explicitly 
declared  by  his  son.  *  In  spite  of  this  fact  (or  in  igno- 
rance of  it)  a  Boston  biographer  has  scornfully  affirmed 
that  "  whatever  poetic  fitness  there  might  be  in  such  a 
motive,  the  suggestion  is  entirely  gratuitous  and  with- 
out the  slightest  foundation."  f  One  of  the  authorities 
cited  (Lamon)  would  have  us  believe  there  were  very 
few  slaves  in  that  part  of  Kentucky,  and  no  trouble 
whatever  about  slavery. 

A  different  story  was  told  by  the  noted  Methodist 


*See  "Complete  Works,"  Nicolay  and  Hay,  I.,  639. 
f Morse's  "Abraham  Lincoln,"  I.,  10-11. 


12        LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

preacher,  Rev.  Peter  Cartwright, —  a  native  of  Amherst 
County,  Virginia,  who  removed  near  the  same  time  from 
Kentucky  to  Illinois,  avowedly  because  he  was  unwill- 
ing to  bring  up  his  children  in  the  midst  of  slavery.  He 
was  Elder  of  the  Salt  River  Circuit,  Kentucky,  in  1808, 
belonging  to  the  old  Western  Conference,  which  met  in 
that  year  at  Liberty  Hill,  Tennessee,  and  at  Cincinnati 
in  1809.  In  his  Jubilee  address  at  Lincoln,  Illinois, 
September  24,  1869,  he  told  of  the  refusal  of  the  Con- 
ference in  1806  to  admit  to  "  the  travelling  connection  n 
a  South  Carolina  applicant,  who  owned  two  slaves,  until 
he  emancipated  them,  "  which  required  expense  addi- 
tional to  the  loss  of  his  slaves."  During  the  year  1808 
he  said  "  some  feeling  existed  in  the  bounds  of  the  Con- 
ference "  in  regard  to  slavery,  "  and  several  petitions 
were  presented  praying  for  the  adoption  of  some  more 
specific  rule  upon  the  subject."  A  rule  was  adopted 
that  year  requiring  the  expulsion  of  any  member  who 
bought  or  sold  a  slave  or  slaves  "  from  speculative 
motives."  *  It  is  known  that  the  anti-slavery  leaven 
was  als.o  at  work  in  the  denomination  to  which  Thomas 
Lincoln  and  his  wife  belonged. 

In  the  autumn  of  181 6  the  family  migrated  a  long 
distance  westward  across  the  Ohio,  into  the  depths  of 
the  Indiana  wilderness.  A  few  weeks  later  the  Terri- 
tory, with  but  sixty-five  thousand  inhabitants,  mostly 
on  the  southern  border,  became  a  State. 

The  quarter  section  already  selected  was  sixteen 
miles  from  the  nearest  landing  on  the  Ohio,  and  on  this 


♦"Fifty  Years  a  Presiding  Elder." — "I  had  been  a  preacher 
for  several  years,"  he  said,  "  before  I  saw  a  shingle-roofed  house 
of  any  description." 


PARENTAGE— CHILDHOOD— YOUTH.     13 

place,  near  Gentryville,  there  is  now  a  station  named 
Lincoln,  twenty  miles  by  railway  from  Rockport,  on 
that  river.  The  principal  stream  in  the  vicinity  is  Little 
Pigeon  Creek.  At  first  there  were  very  few  settlers 
within  many  miles.  Years  passed  before  a  store  was 
opened  or  the  logs  were  hewn  for  the  Little  Pigeon 
Baptist  meeting-house.  Here,  from  his  eighth  year  to 
his  majority,  Abraham  Lincoln  had  his  chief  experience 
of  pioneer  life. 

The  subjugators  of  a  continental  wilderness  had 
always  to  begin  with  a  very  simple  domestic  shelter, 
and  to  live  under  hard  conditions,  that  improved  but 
slowly  at  the  best.  A  prolonged  contest  —  with  the 
pitiless  elements,  with  resisting  nature,,  often  with  the 
unrelenting  savage, —  alone  made  the  building  of  our 
republic  possible.  The  doers  of  this  work  are  true  kin 
of  the  old  heroes  and  demi-gods.  Hercules,  "  by  con- 
quering the  lawless  powers  of  nature,"  says  Curtius, 
"prepared  the  soil  for  a  rational  order  of  life;  he  is 
the  regular  symbol  of  the  pioneering  agency  of  the 
earliest  settlements."  To  descend  from  Hercules  was 
a  Grecian's  glory. 

Bishop  Meade,  of  Virginia,  whose  father,  impover- 
ished by  the  Revolution,  began  life  anew  near  Winches- 
ter, wrote:  "The  whole  country  was  little  less  than  a 
forest  at  that  time.  For  a  small  sum  he  purchased  a 
farm,  with  two  unfinished  log  cabins,  around  which 
the  wolves  nightly  howled.  Laying  aside  the  weapons 
of  war,  he  took  himself  to  hard  labor  with  the  axe, 
the  maul,  and  other  instruments,  while  my  mother 
exchanged  the  luxuries  of  Lower  Virginia  for  the 
economy  and  diligence  of  a  Western  housewife." 


14       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

The  historian  of  early  Kentucky,  Humphrey  Mar- 
shall, spoke  from  personal  knowledge  when  he  said: 
"  Much  use  was  made  of  the  skins  of  deer  for  dress, 
while  the  buffalo  and  bear  skins  were  consigned  to  the 
floor  for  beds  and  covering."  He  describes  pioneer  fur- 
niture in  general  in  almost  the  identical  words  which 
have  been  used  to  describe  the  interior  of  Thomas  Lin- 
coln's log  cabin:  "A  like  workmanship  comprised  the 
table  and  the  stool  —  a  slab  hewn  with  an  axe,  and 
sticks  of  a  similar  manufacture  set  in  for  legs  supported 
both.  When  the  bed  was  by  chance  or  refinement  ele- 
vated above  the  floor  and  given  a  fixed  place,  it  was 
often  laid  on  slabs  placed  across  poles  supported  on 
forks  set  in  the  earthen  floor;  or  where  the  floor  was 
puncheons,  the  bedstead  was  hewed  pieces  pinned  on 
upright  posts  or  let  into  them  by  auger-holes.  Other 
utensils  and  furniture  were  of  a  corresponding  descrip- 
tion, applicable  to  the  time."  Through  all  that  was 
worst  in  this  rough  life  he  saw  and  admired  "  that  sort 
of  Spartan  virtue  "  essential  in  founding  new  countries. 
Many  of  our  American  ancestors  in  the  oldest  States 
passed  through  an  experience  not  widely  different. 

Gentryville  is  farther  south  than  Louisville  or  St. 
Louis.  Around  its  site  the  newcomers  found  a  rich  soil 
and  much  green  turf  beneath  the  forest  trees,  with  some- 
times a  luxurious  undergrowth,  forming  almost  impen- 
etrable thickets.  Ferocious  beasts  prowled  about;  and 
there  were  deer,  wild  turkeys,  and  other  game,  furnish- 
ing an  abundance  of  wholesome  food.  Young  Abra- 
ham distinguished  himself  at  an  early  day  by  a  good 
rifle-shot,  though  he  never  acquired  his  father's  zest  for 


PARENTAGE— CHILDHOOD— YOUTH.     15 

hunting.  Large  of  his  age  and  strong,  he  did  good 
service  with  the  axe  almost  from  the  beginning  of  his 
Hoosier  life.  With  young  David  Turnham  for  a  com- 
panion, he  watched  for  deer  coming  to  the  licks  on  the 
neighboring  prairie,  and  made  long  trips  on  horseback 
to  the  nearest  mill  (save  of  hand-power)  for  grinding 
corn.  On  one  of  the  latter  occasions,  when  he  was  in 
his  tenth  year,  as  he  said  in  i860,  he  met  with  an 
accident  serious  enough  to  be  lastingly  remembered. 
When  urging  his  horse,  which  furnished  the  power  at 
the  mill  for  his  own  grist,  a  kick  of  the  animal  rendered 
him  unconscious,  and  for  some  time  he  was  thought 
to  be  dead.  On  reviving,  he  finished  the  interrupted 
word  of  command  to  the  horse  as  though  nothing  had 
intervened  —  a  mental  phenomenon  which  he  made  the 
subject  of  philosophical  comment  in  later  life. 

During  the  first  two  years  here,  new  settlers  were 
gradually  coming.  The  great  event  of  the  year  18 18 
was  the  appearance  of  an  epidemic  known  as  "  milk 
sickness,"  of  which  several  persons  died.  The  disease, 
still  occasionally  heard  of,  seems  to  have  no  recog- 
nized place  in  systems  of  pathology.  Malarious  poison 
enough  was  certainly  inhaled  or  imbibed  in  these  woods, 
but  some  evil  power  besides  must  have  aggravated  its 
effects. 

Mrs.  Lincoln  died  on  the  5th  of  October  in  this  year, 
aged  nearly  thirty-five.  It  is  not  quite  certain  whether 
the  mysterious  malady  was  the  cause,  for  there  is  a  local 
tradition  that  she  died  of  consumption.  It  is  further 
noticeable  that  her  son  once  spoke  of  "  milk  sickness  " 
as  being  very  much  like  quick  consumption.  There 
was  no  doctor  within  calling  distance,  and  there  was 


16       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

no  professional  diagnosis  of  the  case.  An  old  resident 
of  Spencer  County,  who  knew  her  well  during  the  two 
years  she  lived  in  Indiana,  said,  in  1862,  that  Mrs.  Nancy 
Lincoln  was  a  woman  of  superior  mind,  though  she  had 
but  little  education;  that  she  had  "  great  amiability  and 
kindness  of  heart,"  was  "quick-witted,"  with  a  "humor- 
ous turn"  in  her  talk;  and  was  "more  energetic  than  her 
husband."  The  loss  of  his  mother  was  the  first  great 
grief  of  young  Abraham,  then  not  quite  ten  years  old. 
The  love  of  reading  acquired  through  her  inspiration 
and  help  was  of  itself  enough,  in  his  condition,  to  justify 
his  saying:  "  I  owe  all  that  I  am  or  hope  to  be  to  my 
angel  mother."  His  recollection  of  her  seemed  always 
to  be  quite  clear  and  vivid,  and  he  ever  spoke  of  her  with 
tenderness  and  reverence. 

What  could  be  done  as  housekeeper  by  a  girl  of 
twelve,  Sarah  did  for  more  than  a  year;  but  a  matron's 
care  was  too  visibly  lacking,  and  the  father  decided  to 
ask  the  help  and  hand  of  one  he  had  early  known  as 
Sally  Bush,  now  living  in  widowhood  at  Elizabethtown. 
She  had  married  Daniel  Johnston,  the  jailor,  who  died, 
leaving  three  children  and  little  property.  Evidently 
Thomas  Lincoln  was  quite  unconscious  of  any  stain  on 
his  reputation  where  he  was  best  known.  All  the  gossip 
to  the  contrary,  of  which  more  than  enough  has  been 
repeated  by  some  writers,  is  plainly  of  later  invention. 
In  1874  Samuel  Haycraft,  the  veteran  clerk  of  the  court 
of  Hardin  County,  said  of  this  courtship  and  marriage: 

"  I  was  born  in  this  town  on  the  14th  of  August, 
1795,  and  have  a  good  memory  of  persons  and  things 
as  they  existed  in  'auld  lang  syne/     I  knew  Thomas 


PARENTAGE— CHILDHOOD— YOUTH.     17 

Lincoln  well*  .  .  .  His  second  wife  was  originally 
Miss  Sally  Bush,  daughter  of  Christopher  and  Hannah 
Bush,  and  was  raised  in  Hardin  County,  half  a  mile 
from  Elizabethtown.  She  was  married  to  Daniel  John- 
ston on  the  13th  of  March,  1806,  and  lived  in  Elizabeth- 
town,  where  he  died  early  in  April,  18 14,  of  what  was 
called  'cold  plague.'  .  .  .  His  widow  continued  to  live 
here  until  the  2d  of  December,  1819.  Thomas  Lin- 
coln returned  to  this  place  on  the  1st  day  of  Decem- 
ber, and  inquired  for  the  residence  of  Widow  Johnston. 
She  lived  near  the  clerk's  office.  I  was  the  clerk,  and 
informed  him  how  to  find  her.  He  was  not  slow  to 
present  himself  before  her,  when  the  following  courtship 
occurred.     He  said  to  her: 

"  'I  am  a  lone  man,  and  you  are  a  lone  woman.  I 
have  knowed  you  from  a  girl,  and  you  have  knowed  me 
from  a  boy;  and  I  have  come  all  the  way  from  Indiana 
to  ask  if  you'll  marry  me  right  off,  as  I've  no  time  to 
lose/ 

"  To  which  she  replied:  'Tommy  Lincoln,  I  have 
no  objection  to  marrying  you,  but  I  can  not  do  it  right 
off,  for  I  owe  several  little  debts  which  must  first  be 
paid.' 

"The  gallant  man  promptly  said:  'Give  me  a  list 
of  your  debts.' 

"  The  list  was  furnished,  and  the  debts  were  paid  the 
same  evening.  The  next  morning,  December  2d,  1819, 
I  issued  the  license,  and  the  same  day  they  were  married, 
bundled  up,  and  started  for  home." 


*For  Mr.  Haycraft's  personal  description  of  Thomas  Lincoln 
(the  passage  omitted  here),  see  ante,  p.  8. 


18        LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

Surely  this  man  could  be  very  energetic  whenever 
he  would! 

"  Mrs.  Johnston,  formerly  Sally  Bush  "  (continued 
the  venerable  clerk)  "  was  tall,  slender,  very  good  look- 
ing, and  was  taken  in  those  days  to  be  quite  a  graceful 
and  gay  lady.  She  was  very  neat,  and  thought  to  have 
been  a  good  match  for  Thomas  Lincoln.  His  new  wife 
added  much  to  the  comfort  of  his  Indiana  home,  and 
she  took  great  interest  in  the  training  and  education  of 
her  stepson,  Abraham." 

Dennis  Hanks,  who  had  moved  to  Indiana  with  rela- 
tives of  Abraham's  mother,  lived  in  the  family  until  he 
married  one  of  the  Johnston  daughters;  and  the  other 
became  the  wife  of  Levi  Hall,  whose  mother  was  also  a 
Hanks.  The  stepmother  was  indeed  a  very  kind  one, 
and  for  the  lad  especially  she  had  an  affection  like 
that  of  an  actual  mother,  as  he  fully  appreciated  then 
and  after. 

The  Baptist  meeting-house  and  the  school-house, 
both  log  structures,  were  presently  built,  not  far  away. 
It  happened  that  two  highways  —  one  extended  west- 
ward from  Cory  don  through  Spencer  County  in  1820, 
the  other  northwestward  from  Rockport  a  year  or  two 
later  —  crossed  each  other  a  mile  and  a  half  from 
Thomas  Lincoln's  cabin.  A  store  was  opened  at  the 
corners,  and  the  Gentryville  postofiice  was  established 
in  1824.  William  Jones  soon  became  the  leading  store- 
keeper, succeeding  James  Gentry,  after  whom  the  place 
was  named,  and  who  continued  to  be  its  most  promi- 
nent citizen.  Some  one  else  started  a  grocery  there  — 
"  saloon  "  being  a  refinement  as  yet  unknown  in  the 
West.    The  blacksmith  had  earlier  arrived;  conveniences 


PARENTAGE— CHILDHOOD— YOUTH.     19 

were  steadily  increasing;  and  the  settlement  had  now  an 
assured  position  in  the  world. 

At  the  Gentry ville  school  in  the  winter  of  1823-4  the 
teacher,  in  addition  to  the  usual  course,  gave  instruc- 
tion in  "  manners  "  —  more  rudimentary  than  the  les- 
sons of  Chesterfield.  Whether  due  to  this  training  or 
not,  young  Abraham,  while  lacking  in  personal  graces,, 
was  politely  deferential  when  speaking  to  a  lady,  it  is 
said,  touching  his  hat  or  cap  —  sometimes  lifting  it  out- 
right, we  may  suppose,  if  his  head-gear  at  the  time  hap- 
pened to  be  promptly  manageable.  In  Indiana,  how- 
ever, as  in  Kentucky,  his  school  days  were  few.  They 
ended  altogether  before  he  was  seventeen. 

Except  in  reading,  he  found  no  greater  delight  as 
a  boy  than  in  going  to  have  a  talk  with  John  Baldwin, 
the  blacksmith,  a  famous  story-teller.  He  also  liked  to 
listen  to  people  who  lounged  at  the  store.  He  had  a 
good  friend  in  Mr.  Jones,  who  lent  him  newspapers,  and 
occasionally  gave  him  something  to  do.  At  huskings 
and  merry-makings  he  was  not  only  noticeable  for  his 
figure, —  very  tall  for  his  years,  lank  and  sallow-faced, — 
but  also  for  his  humor  and  spirit.  If  he  had  just  done 
a  hard  day's  work,  it  made  little  difference.  He  had 
great  physical  strength  and  wonderful  endurance.  One 
of  his  pastimes  was  to  attend  the  'Squire's  courts  at 
Gentryville,  and  he  would  walk  the  long  distance  to  the 
county  court-house  to  witness  a  more  stately  trial.  In 
1825  he  was  employed  for  some  months  by  a  farmer 
and  ferryman  at  the  mouth  of  Anderson's  Creek.  This 
brought  him  into  familiarity  with  the  Ohio  River  and 
with  new  scenes  of  life  and  business.  In  the  next  year 
his  sister,  at  the  age  of  eighteen,  was  married  to  Aaron 


20       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

Grigsby  —  a  good  match,  apparently,  for  both;  yet  in 
a  year  she  died  in  child-bed.  Of  this  family,  that  left 
Kentucky  ten  years  before,  there  remained  in  1828  only 
the  father  and  son,  whom  neither  hardship  nor  malaria 
had  dangerously  affected. 

In  the  spring  of  1828  Abraham  gladly  accepted  the 
offer  of  Mr.  Gentry  to  take  charge,  in  connection  with 
his  son  Allen,  of  a  flatboat  cargo  of  produce  to  be 
sold  along  the  "  sugar-coast  "  of  Louisiana  and  in  New 
Orleans.  For  a  youth  of  nineteen,  who  was  expected 
to  bear  the  brunt  of  the  undertaking,  this  commission 
was  a  great  affair;  and  it  gave  him,  for  the  first  time, 
(in  reality,  not  in  dream,)  a  long  outlook  and  excur- 
sion among  far-off  places  and  people.  Of  this  voyage 
it  is  not  known  that  he  ever  gave  any  detailed  account 
beyond  that  of  a  single  adventure — a  memorable  one — 
too  briefly  told. 

Looking  back  at  this  day  through  the  intervening 
time,  it  has  much  more  significance  than  his  modest 
words  would  imply  that  it  had  in  his  own  mind.  In 
disposing  of  that  part  of  their  cargo  intended  for  sale 
along  the  river  in  Louisiana,  the  boatmen  lingered  on 
their  way,  pausing  at  one  and  another  plantation.  Just 
below  Baton  Rouge,  one  night,  they  had  cabled  their 
craft  to  the  shore,  expecting  to  remain  until  morning. 
But  their  repose  was  disturbed  by  a  party  of  seven 
negroes,  who  came  on  board  with  the  evident  purpose 
of  surprising  them  in  sleep,  and  taking  possession  of 
their  boat.  It  was  a  fight  for  life,  and  surely  a  hope- 
less one  but  for  the  remarkable  strength  and  dexterity 
of  young  Lincoln.  The  murderous  looting  party  —  the 
first  of  their  race  with  whom  he  had  come  in  direct  con- 


PARENTAGE— CHILDHOOD— YOUTH.    21 

tact  - —  were  beaten  off,  and  the  victors  made  no  delay 
in  pulling  out  into  the  current,  floating  miles  away  when 
morning  dawned. 

After  successfully  accomplishing  their  business  in 
New  Orleans,  they  undoubtedly  gave  some  time  to 
observation.  Could  they  have  omitted  to  visit  the 
famous  battle-ground  of  181 5?  The  West  was  still 
proudly  exulting  in  the  glories  of  that  field,  in  which 
the  "  hunters  of  Kentucky "  so  honorably  shared. 
Jackson  himself  had  lately  made  his  excursion  down 
the  river,  amid  fireworks  and  huzzas,  on  invitation  to 
a  grand  celebration  at  the  scene  of  his  victory,  meant 
to  give  a  good  send-off  to  his  candidacy  in  the  Presi- 
dential canvass  of  this  year.  Returning  by  steamboat 
to  Rockport,  the  young  navigators  were  at  home  again 
before  the  end  of  June. 

From  Lincoln's  birth  until  the  close  of  his  Indiana 
life  and  his  minority  there  are  no  contemporary  letters 
or  other  writings  of  himself,  or  of  any  associate,  to  give 
material  help  to  the  biographer.  No  acquaintance  of 
his  in  those  years  ever  came  to  marked  distinction. 
The  local  gossip  of  a  later  generation  and  the  crude 
recollections  of  garrulous  Dennis  Hanks  must  not  be 
taken  at  their  face  value,  and  they  seldom  touch  the 
things  we  would  most  like  to  know.  Through  this 
haze,  however,  we  may  partly  discover  and  securely 
infer  that  young  Lincoln,  like  a  stolen  prince  among 
herdmen,  was  of  different  mould  from  those  around 
him  —  freely  associating  with  them,  but  having  an 
independent  life  of  his  own.  If  he  had  associates  that 
did  not  contribute  to  his  refinement,  he  was  never  sub- 
ject to  them,  and  could  always  rise  above  their  influ- 


22        LINCOLN  AND  HTS  PRESIDENCY. 

ence.  Drinking  habits  were  prevalent,  but  he  had  no 
relish  for  strong  liquors,  and  seldom  if  ever  tasted  any. 
He  shrank  from  causing  needless  suffering,  and  could 
not  bear  to  see  any  wanton  infliction  of  pain.  This  may 
have  been  one  reason  that  he  had  so  little  to  do  with 
hunting  and  fishing.  He  was  helpful  to  "  the  women 
folks,"  and  in  general  was  liked  by  them.  The  oft-told 
incident  of  his  finding  a  drunken  man  lying  in  the  road 
on  a  freezing  night,  and  carrying  him  without  help  to 
a  cabin,  in  spite  of  a  companion's  advice  to  "  let  the 
drunkard  alone,"  illustrates  the  habitual  kindness  of  Lin- 
coln in  these  as  in  later  years.  He  joined  in  wrestling 
and  other  trials  of  strength  and  skill,  and  was  usually 
the  winner.  He  seems  to  have  been  credited  with  a 
strength  of  mind  in  proportion  to  his  superior  physical 
force  and  stature. 

He  helped  organize  a  debating  club,  and  indulged 
elsewhere  occasionally  in  at  least  a  burlesque  harangue. 
We  may  credit  the  report  that  under  provocation  he 
even  wrote  satiric  "  chronicles,"  and  that  one  of  these, 
said  to  have  been  preserved,  is  altogether  genuine, 
though  not  in  all  respects  commendable.  It  deserves 
no  special  outpouring  of  censure,  however;  and  its  good 
English  and  easy  style  prove  that  its  author  had  no  need 
to  ask  the  aid  of  a  schoolmaster,  as  related  of  Lincoln 
years  later,  in  framing  a  political  manifesto.  He  wrote 
two  or  three  short  contributions,  which,  under  friendly 
encouragement,  were  sent  to  a  newspaper  editor,  who 
published  them. 

He  was  much  given  to  reading  when  he  could  get  a 
book  and  a  chance  —  sometimes  by  day  in  the  open  air, 
more  commonly  at  night  by  the  light  of  an  open  fire  or 


PARENTAGE— CHILDHOOD— YOUTH.    23 

of  a  tallow  dip  or  taper  in  his  loft.  He  transcribed  pass- 
ages to  be  pondered  over  after  the  borrowed  book  was 
gone.  He  worked  out  "  sums  "  in  arithmetic  with  pen 
and  ink,  and  practiced  penmanship  in  a  copy-book  or 
on  blank  leaves,  apparently  furnished  him  by  Mr.  Jones 
or  some  one  else  from  an  old  ledger.  Among  the  latter 
exercises  were  eight  lines,  of  which  Mr.  Herndon  says: 
"  Nothing  indicates  that  they  are  borrowed,  and  I  have 
always,  therefore,  believed  that  they  were  original  with 
him."  These  were  in  fact  the  once  familiar  lines  of  an 
older  date,  beginning: 

"Time,  what  an  empty  vapor  'tis; 
And  days,  how  swift  they  are; 
Swift  as  an  Indian  arrow  flies, 
Or  like  a  shooting  star." 

Mr.  Herndon  says  positively  that  certain  lines,  of  which 
he  found  a  copy  in  the  neighborhood, —  alleged  to  have 
been  sung  at  Sarah's  wedding  in  1826  —  were  "com- 
posed in  honor  of  the  event  by  Abe  himself,"  but  the/ 
production  was  not  his,  and  his  connection  with  the 
paper  at  all  lacks  proof.* 

Having  as  yet  no  access  to  libraries,  he  borrowed  a 
volume  here  and  there  as  he  could  —  including  Ram- 


*The  "tiresome  doggerel/'  as  Herndon  calls  it,  begins: 

"  When  Adam  was  created 

He  dwelt  in  Eden's  shade,"  etc. 

An  old  and  yellowed  manuscript  agreeing  substantially  with 
the  Gentryville  document  as  far  as  the  latter  goes,  but  of  greater 
length,  is  in  possession  of  the  present  writer,  to  whom  it  came 
as  a  family  relic,  handed  down  from  generation  to  generation  since 
its  date,  August  21,  1786.  It  was  written  in  Massachusetts,  but  its 
origin  may  have  been  more  remote. 


24        LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

sey's  Life  of  Washington  and  a  History  of  the  United 
States.  Another  was  the  peculiar  biography  of  Wash- 
ington by  Weems,  at  one  time  very  popular  with  young 
readers  in  the  West,  and  notably  mentioned  by  him  in 
a  speech  at  Trenton  while  on  his  last  journey  to  the 
national  capital.  The  book  is  a  compound  of  fiction 
and  fact,  even  the  author's  claim  (on  his  title  page) 
to  have  been  "  formerly  rector  of  Mt.  Vernon  "  being 
disputed  by  Bishop  Meade.  Imaginary  conversations 
abound  in  its  pages;  unheroic  realities  are  freely  embel- 
lished, if  not  elevated,  by  incidental  inventions;  and  the 
famous  hatchet  story  is  among  the  less  ambitious  orig- 
inal creations  with  a  moral  purpose.  We  may  also  add 
the  Autobiography  of  Franklin,  which  would  do  much 
in  this  case  to  encourage  a  laudable  ambition.*  He  as 
yet  knew  little  of  Shakespeare  or  Burns,  afterward  his 
favorite  poets.  The  few  novels  within  his  reach  tempted 
him  little,  though  later  he  enjoyed  the  "  Leather  Stock- 
ing Tales  "  and  other  American  fiction  less  permanently 
in  repute.  He  found  solid  satisfaction  in  a  copy  of  the 
"  Statutes  of  Indiana,"  more  especially  from  the  fact  — 
of  much  moment  —  that  the  volume  also  contained  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States  and  the  Declaration 
of  Independence. 


*Mr.  J.  L.  Scripps  stated  in  a  biographical  sketch  submitted  to 
Lincoln  in  i860,  that  the  latter  read  at  this  period  the  "Life  of 
Franklin,"  and  Plutarch's  "  Lives."  The  Plutarch  was  first  read 
much  later,  Lincoln  said,  but  the  Franklin  reading  was  by  silence 
affirmed.     See  letter  in  Cranbrook  Press  reprint  of  Scripps,  p.  8. 


CHAPTER  III. 

1830-1837. 

Removal  to  Illinois  —  A  Second  Voyage  to  New  Orleans  — 
Captain  in  Black  Hawk  War  —  Surveyor,  Post- 
master, Legislator  —  Menard  Legends, 

To  dwell  in  a  frame  house  was  not  beyond  the  ambi- 
tion of  Thomas  Lincoln.  Before  the  year  1829  was 
ended  he  had  gathered  the  needed  boards,  sawn  by 
hand  —  the  saw-pit  still  awaiting  the  belated  mill.  But 
the  house  was  never  to  be  for  him.  Times  were  hard  as 
ever.  President  Jackson  implored  Congress  to  relieve 
settlers  who  had  taken  lands  under  the  credit  system; 
but  his  voice  was  unheeded.  Many  had  to  sell  improved 
lands  at  a  loss  or  to  abandon  them  altogether.  And, 
besides,  the  Pigeon  Creek  community  had  another  vis- 
itation this  autumn  from  its  old  enemy,  milk  sickness. 
Finally,  allured  by  favorable  reports  from  his  friend, 
John  Hanks,  who  had  gone  to  the  Sangamon  River 
country,  in  Illinois,  Thomas  Lincoln  determined  to  fol- 
low him.  The  boards  went  to  another  farmer  of  the 
*_  Gentryville  neighborhood  and  made  the  Crawford  house 
famous.  What  remained  of  the  Lincoln  farm  (one-half 
had  already  reverted  to  the  Government)  passed  into 
the  possession  of  the  more  fortunate  James  Gentry. 

Sangamon    County    was    organized    in    1821,    and 
Springfield,  while  as  yet  having  little  more  than  a  paper 

(25) 


26        LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

existence,  became  the  county  seat.  Farther  up  the 
Sangamon  River,  in  Macon  County,  ten  miles  west  of 
Decatur,  the  Lincoln  family  temporarily  settled,  early 
in  the  spring  of  1830.  The  son  assisted  in  building  a 
cabin  and  fencing  in  a  field  of  ten  acres  —  probably  his 
chief  experience  as  a  "  rail-splitter."  The  few  months 
that  he  spent  in  Macon  County  are  otherwise  of  little 
interest,  save  as  to  the  manner  in  which  the  sojourn 
ended.  Afterward  he  never  visited  the  place,  (near 
which  John  Hanks,  a  successful  farmer,  remained  for 
life,)  nor  did  the  rest  of  the  family  continue  here  long. 

The  winter  of  1830-31  was  ever  memorable  to  the 
early  settlers  of  the  State  for  its  marvelous  "  deep 
snow."  Before  the  immense  floods  of  the  following 
spring  had  fairly  set  in,  "  there  came  a  man  to  that  part 
of  Macon  County,"  said  Lincoln  in  i860,  "  looking  for 
hands  to  run  a  flatboat  to  New  Orleans."  It  may  not 
have  been  quite  by  chance  that  he  there  met  one  who 
was  entirely  competent  for  the  service  who  had  no  pre- 
vious engagement.  A  bargain  was  closed  with  Lin- 
coln, to  be  assisted  by  John  Johnston,  his  step-brother, 
and  John  Hanks.  At  the  time  appointed  for  meeting 
their  employer  (Denton  Offutt)  near  Springfield,  the 
waters  spread  far  and  wide,  like  a  great  sea,  over  which 
Lincoln  voyaged,  by  canoe,  gaining  his  "  introduction 
to  Sangamon  County." 

A  flatboat  was  built  from  timber  which  they  cut  in 
the  woods  and  sawed  at  a  mill;  and  after  the  launch  all 
went  well  until  the  craft  stuck  fast  on  a  dam  at  New 
Salem,  twenty  miles  down  the  river.  That  was  on  the 
1 8th  of  April,  1831.  The  gathered  people  watched 
the  vain  efforts  made,  as  the  day  wore  on,  until  finally 


REMOVAL  TO  ILLINOIS.  27 

Lincoln's  ingenuity  prevailed.  The  cargo  having  been 
removed,  holes  were  bored  in  that  part  of  the  boat  pro- 
jecting over  the  dam;  the  water  ran  out  as  the  rear  was 
elevated,  and  a  combination  of  main  strength  did  the 
rest.  Offutt  was  delighted,  bystanders  applauded,  and 
the  re-loaded  vessel  resumed  its  course.  The  scene  of 
this  adventure  was  to  have  a  more  lasting  relation  to 
his  life.  Here  Offutt  saw  what  seemed  an  inviting 
opportunity  for  business,  in  which  young  Lincoln,  to 
whom  he  took  a  great  liking,  would  be  serviceable  on 
his  return  from  New  Orleans,  which  happened  in  due 
time. 

In  making  two  such  voyages,  Lincoln  came  to  see, 
as  would  otherwise  not  have  happened  in  his  early  expe- 
rience, what  trouble  had  befallen  the  nation  from  the 
introduction  of  a  race  of  men  stolen  from  the  midst  of 
a  barbarism  that  was  dark  and  cruel,  to  serve  as  labor 
machines.  Their  presence  as  bondmen  —  indeed,  their 
presence  at  all  —  had  become  a  continued  source  of  dis- 
turbance. One  side  of  the  case  he  had  seen  —  one  to 
excite  his  antipathy  —  when  forced  to  an  unwilling  con- 
flict at  Baton  Rouge  two  years  before.  On  his  second 
trip  he  encountered  enough  of  the  worst  visible  features 
of  slavery,  beyond  doubt,  to  excite  a  resentful  sympathy 
for  its  victims.  It  is  less  certain  that,  as  alleged,  he 
vowed  to  "  hit  that  thing  if  he  ever  got  a  chance,  and 
hit  it  hard,,,  or  that  a  fortune-telling  negress  told  him 
he  would  one  day  be  President,  and  then  all  the  negroes 
would  be  free. 

New  Salem  village  was  of  very  recent  birth,  having 
less  than  a  score  of  cheap  buildings,  on  a  bluff  over- 
hanging the  Sangamon  on  the  west.     Two  miles  north, 


28        LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

down  the  valley,  is  the  present  town  of  Petersburg,  not 
then  existing  or  even  platted,  but  which  was  ere  long 
to  absorb  the  very  life-blood  of  the  older  settlement 
and  to  become  the  seat  of  a  new  county,  Menard.  In 
Lincoln's  memory  this  valley  as  far  as  Concord,  four 
miles  farther  on,  had  a  secure  place.  His  busy  hours 
must  have  been  haunted  by  visions  of  these  bluffs  and 
bottom  lands;  in  solitary  revery  he  must  often  have 
heard  the  roar  of  Sangamon  Falls  making  monotonous 
lament  while  the  ghosts  of  hopes  and  sorrows,  of  cares 
and  joys,  flitted  in  the  thickening  darkness  of  his  spirit. 
He  had  floated  down  on  the  "deep  snow"  flood,  he  once 
said,  and  landed  here  like  a  piece  of  driftwood. 

Just  before  the  State  election,  then  occurring  in 
August,  he  returned  from  a  visit  to  his  father  (who  had 
finally  settled  in  Coles  County),  and  was  pressed  into 
service  as  a  clerk  at  the  polls.  It  was  here,  in  Clary's 
Grove  precinct,  that  he  cast  his  first  vote.  The  viva 
voce  method,  according  to  the  Kentucky  code  which 
Illinois  had  copied,  was  still  in  use.  The  poll-sheet  dis- 
closes that  Lincoln  voted  for  James  Turney,  Whig,  for 
Representative  in  Congress,  as  against  Joseph  Dun- 
can, Democrat,  who  was  re-elected;  for  John  ("Jack") 
Armstrong  for  Constable;  and  for  Boling  Green,  later 
his  warm  friend,  for  Magistrate.  Both  the  last  were 
elected.  Armstrong,  as  the  champion  wrestler,  was 
soon  after  put  forward  to  test  the  value  of  OfTutt's  brag- 
ging over  the  athletic  powers  of  his  clerk.  Lincoln 
accepted  the  challenge  of  the  constable;  stakes  were  put 
up  by  the  backers  of  each,  and  the  entire  community 
was  astir  over  the  contest.  The  wrestlers  proved  to  be 
nearly  equally  matched.     Both  kept  stoutly  on  their  feet 


REMOVAL  TO  ILLINOIS.  29 

during  a  long  struggle.  Then  there  was  an  alleged  foul 
and  a  dispute,  with  angry  excitement  among  the  friends 
of  each  and  stormy  signs  all  around.  But  respectable 
Mr.  Rutledge  counseled  peace;  and  under  like  circum- 
stances peace  was  probably  never  more  easily  secured. 
In  truth,  the  newcomer  had  triumphed,  as  his  com- 
petitor conceded  with  an  amicable  shake  of  the  hand. 
Ever  afterward  Lincoln  had  the  respect  and  good  will 
of  these  people  and  a  restraining  influence  over  the  most 
refractory  spirits. 

The  new  store  was  hardly  opened  before  bustling 
Offutt  also  took  possession  of  the  mill  at  the  foot  of  the 
bluff,  rented  from  Cameron  and  Rutledge,  two  of  the 
earliest  adventurers  here;  and  the  business  was  further 
enlarged,  if  it  was  here  that  Lincoln  was  employed  for 
a  time  in  "  a  still  at  the  head  of  a  valley,"  as  he  once 
stated  in  debate.  Young  William  G.  Greene,*  to  whom 
the  world  is  indebted  for  recollections  of  those  days, 
was  employed  to  help  in  these  complicated  affairs,  the 
two  clerks  becoming  firm  friends,  fellow-lodgers  at  the 
store,  and  fellow-boarders  at  Rutledge's  tavern.  An- 
other acquaintance  was  a  bright  and  genial,  yet  short- 
lived young  fellow  of  bibulous  habits,  John  Kelso, 
whose  enthusiasm  over  Burns  and  Shakespeare  was 
caught  by  his  new  associate.  Boling  Green,  who  lived 
?  a  mile  or  two  from  the  mill,  had  readable  books,  and 
gave  Lincoln  cordial  welcome  to  his  fireside.  Farther 
away  on  the  same  river  road  was  the  farm  of  Bennett 
Abell,  whose  wife  was  a  well-educated  Kentuckian  and 
among  Lincoln's  most  esteemed  acquaintances  here. 


*Later    of    Tallula,    Menard    County — a  wealthy  farmer    and 
banker.     He  died  in  1894. 


3o       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

As  the  autumn  and  winter  (183 1-2)  passed,  his 
twenty-third  year  closing,  it  became  evident  that  an- 
other change  of  his  lot  was  impending.  In  the  spring 
a  steamboat,  "  The  Talisman,"  to  test  the  navigability 
of  the  Sangamon  River,  made  a  first  (and  last)  trip  from 
St.  Louis  up  to  the  Springfield  landing.  This  was  easy 
during  the  floods  of  the  season.  Lincoln  was  called 
upon  to  pilot  the  boat  from  Beardstown  upward.  At 
Springfield  the  enterprise  found  a  welcome  all  aglow 
with  brilliant  expectations.  While  enthusiasm  grew 
and  generous  hospitalities  were  prolonged,  the  waters 
rapidly  subsided.  To  return  was  now  the  labor.  The 
same  pilot  had  the  troublesome  though  not  profitless 
job  of  conducting  the  boat  back  to  the  steadier  cur- 
rent of  the  Illinois.  It  was  the  last  steam  trip  on  the 
Upper  Sangamon.  Offutt,  losing  heart  in  his  com- 
bined undertakings,  sold  his  store,  gave  up  the  mill, 
and  departed  to  the  unknown  from  whence  he  came, 
leaving  his  late  clerk  free  to  take  a  hand  in  the  Indian 
war,  now  brewing. 

It  was  early  a  cherished  purpose  at  the  West  and 
South  to  get  the  wild  red  man  across  the  Mississippi. 
To  do  this,  and  to  keep  him  there,  counted  for  the  time 
as  an  effectual  riddance.  Black  Hawk,  a  chief  of  the 
Sacs  and  Foxes,  had  when  young  gone  to  Iowa  with  his 
tribe,  under  a  treaty  surrendering  lands  in  the  fair  and 
fertile  valley  of  Rock  River  —  a  treaty  which  he  person- 
ally confirmed  on  coming  to  the  chieftainship.  With 
something  of  the  ambition  of  Pontiac,  though  without 
his  capacity,  he  later  tried  to  unite  other  tribes  with  his 
own  in  attempting  to  re-possess  the  ceded  land.     Gath- 


CAPTAIN  IN  BLACK  HAWK  WAR.        31 

ering  a  few  hundred  warriors  in  the  spring  of  1831,  he 
crossed  over  into  his  native  valley  and  began  a  savage 
campaign,  not  free  from  the  usual  atrocities.  Before 
encountering  the  regular  troops  stationed  at  Rock 
Island  and  the  volunteers  called  out  by  the  Governor 
of  Illinois,  however,  Black  Hawk  and  his  marauders 
retreated  beyond  the  Mississippi.  After  suffering  some 
retaliatory  chastisement,  Black  Hawk  sued  for  peace, 
and  agreed  to  a  treaty  requiring  him  to  remain  quiet 
on  his  side  of  the  river.  These  events  happened  while 
Lincoln  was  on  his  last  flatboat  expedition  to  New 
Orleans. 

He  had  scarcely  returned  from  piloting  "  The  Talis- 
man "  back  to  Beardstown,  in  the  spring  of  1832,  when 
news  came  that  Black  Hawk  was  again  on  the  warpath 
in  Rock  River  valley,  and  Governor  Reynolds  again 
called  for  volunteers  to  aid  in  repelling  the  invasion. 
Lincoln  at  once  enlisted,  as  did  enough  of  the  "  boys  " 
of  Clary's  Grove  and  vicinity  to  form  a  company,  and 
they  were  enrolled  on  the  21st  of  April  as  mounted  vol- 
unteers. At  Beardstown,  the  general  rendezvous  for 
the  State  troops,  Lincoln  was  chosen  Captain  by  vote 
of  the  company,  much  to  his  gratification  as  a  token  of 
personal  favor. 

The  regiments  and  the  spy  battalion  levied  by  the 
Governor  were  under  the  command  of  General  White- 
side, an  experienced  Indian  fighter.  Marching  north- 
wardly to  Oquawka,  about  eighty  miles  distant  on  the 
Mississippi,  and  thence  into  the  Rock  River  valley,  they 
advanced  to  Prophetstown,  which  was  burnt,  and  con- 
tinued as  far  as  Dixon's  Ferry  without  overtaking  the 
flying  enemy.     There  was  an  alertness  among  the  vol- 


32       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

unters,  an  eagerness  for  giving  battle,  quite  in  contrast 
with  the  steadier  move  of  the  regulars,  who  were  as  yet 
far  in  the  rear.  Whiteside  allowed  two  zealous  bat- 
talions, lately  added  to  his  command,  to  make  a  recon- 
noissance  under  Major  Stillman,  on  the  12th  of  May. 
Twelve  miles  above  Dixon  they  pitched  their  camp  for 
the  night  near  an  inviting  creek,  since  known  as  Still- 
man's  Run,  which  proved  to  be  unexpectedly  near 
Black  Hawk's  main  force.  When  the  Indian  scouts 
were  driven  in,  at  dusk,  the  direction  of  the  chase  was 
suddenly  reversed,  followed  by  a  panic  among  Still- 
man's  men,  which  ended  all  prospect  of  a  night's  rest 
in  camp.  They  rapidly  countermarched,  suffering  con- 
siderable loss;  but  the  red  chief  did  not  care  to  rush  on 
three  times  his  number  at  Dixon's  Ferry,  and  was  out 
of  reach  next  morning.  Whiteside's  regulars  and  ex- 
pected supplies  —  the  latter  now  greatly  needed  —  had 
at  last  arrived.  As  the  end  of  their  brief  term  of  enlist- 
ment drew  near,  the  martial  ardor  of  the  volunteers 
had  so  diminished  with  increase  of  experience  that  few 
re-enlisted. 

Captain  Lincoln's  company  was  mustered  out  at  the 
mouth  of  Fox  River  on  the  27th  of  May.  Of  those 
honorably  discharged  there  were,  besides  three  Arm- 
strongs and  two  Clarys,  John  M.  Rutledge  and  David 
Rutledge,  (the  former  a  nephew,  the  latter  a  son  of 
James  Rutledge,)  and  William  G.  Greene.  There  were 
some  turbulent  fellows  under  the  young  Captain's  com- 
mand; his  patience  was  occasionally  tried  pretty  se- 
verely, and  his  utmost  tact  brought  into  play,  where 
military  training  was  almost  unknown  and  discipline  a 
word  scarcely  understood;  for  these  men  regarded  indi- 


CAPTAIN  IN  BLACK  HAWK  WAR.        33 

vidual  bravery  and  good  marksmanship  the  chief  essen- 
tials in  war,  and  were  ill  prepared,  in  advance  of  expe- 
rience, to  blend  readily  the  independence  of  a  citizen 
with  the  subordination  of  a  soldier.  When  the  real 
issue  came,  and  a  positive  assertion  of  authority  was 
demanded,  Lincoln  maintained  his  supremacy  fully  as 
much,  it  would  seem,  by  his  qualities  as  a  man  as  by 
virtue  of  his  office.  One  instance  deserves  to  be  spe- 
cially remembered,  in  which,  single-handed  against  the 
men  of  his  company,  he  prevailed  in  saving  the  life  of  a 
really  harmless  and  friendly  Indian,  who  had  come  into 
camp  bearing  a  written  passport  from  higher  authority, 
but  whom  the  soldiers  believed  to  be  a  pretender  or  a 
spy,  and  were  bent  on  summarily  executing.  The  Cap- 
tain's bearing  and  his  power  on  this  occasion,  accord- 
ing to  accounts  from  some  of  the  men  in  after  years, 
impressed  them  as  almost  supernaturally  grand. 

When  his  company  was  disbanded  Lincoln  promptly 
re-enlisted,  and  served  as  a  private  in  the  scouting  bat- 
talion of  Captain  Early,  of  Springfield.  There  was  some 
fighting  in  the  vicinity  of  Galena,  and  again  at  Kellogg's 
Grove  in  June.  Black  Hawk  crossed  the  Wisconsin 
River  in  the  latter  part  of  July,  and  was  finally  over- 
taken on  the  eastern  bank  of  the  Mississippi,  near  the 
mouth  of  the  Bad  Axe  River,  and  beaten  there  on  the 
26.  of  August.  He  was  captured  a  few  days  afterward, 
to  be  received  at  Washington  rather  as  a  guest  than  as 
a  prisoner.  Already  an  old  man,  he  survived  for  many 
years,  comfortably  sustaining  the  character  of  a  hero  in 
misfortune.  Lincoln  was  not  engaged  in  any  battle  or 
skirmish,  and  the  scouting  company  which  he  joined 
was  mustered  out  before  the  final  defeat  of  Black  Hawk. 
3 


34       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

In  a  war  so  meager  in  military  exploit,  it  is  curious 
to  note  how  many  persons  then  or  later  distinguished 
had  part — Andrew  Jackson  being  Commander-in-Chief, 
ex-ofdcio.  Major-General  Scott  had  set  out  with  a  small 
body  of  regulars,  to  put  an  end  to  the  affair  by  taking 
the  field  in  person.  Arrived  at  Chicago,  then  beginning 
to  grow  from  a  mere  military  fort  into  a  thin,  straggling 
village,  he  met  a  more  formidable  foe  than  he  was  seek- 
ing, in  the  form  of  Asiatic  cholera.  He  has  himself  told 
with  some  degree  of  indignation,  even  in  remote  recol- 
lection, how  he  was  deserted  by  the  only  surgeon  of  his 
command  who  had  capacity  in  the  medical  line,  and  had 
to  assume  the  additional  characters  of  nurse  and  medi- 
cal attendant  for  the  sick  soldiers  in  camp.  He  had  not 
fully  restored  the  health  of  his  convalescents  when  news 
came  that  Black  Hawk  was  beaten  and  the  war  was  over. 

Other  officers  connected  with  this  campaign  were 
Zachary  Taylor,  then  a  Colonel  of  the  regular  army,  and 
in  command  of  the  post  of  Fort  Crawford,  at  Prairie  du 
Chien;  Jefferson  Davis,  later  his  son-in-law;  Albert  Sid- 
ney Johnston;  Erasmus  D.  Keyes,  a  Lieutenant,  lately 
graduated;  and  Robert  Anderson,  then  Lieutenant  of 
Artillery,  acting  as  Assistant  Inspector-General,  by 
whom  the  volunteers  were  mustered  into  the  service. 
Of  more  immediate  importance  to  Captain  Lincoln 
were  two  men  in  the  volunteer  service,  both  residents 
of  Springfield:  Major  John  T.  Stuart,  an  educated  Ken- 
tuckian  and  an  able  lawyer,  who  first  met  Lincoln  at 
Beardstown  at  the  time  of  the  mustering-in,  and  John 
Calhoun,  of  a  prominent  Massachusetts  family  of  Scotch 
descent,  said  to  be  related  to  the  eminent  Carolina 
statesman. 


POSTMASTER,  SURVEYOR,  LEGISLATOR.  35 

Before  going  to  the  war,  Lincoln  had  announced 
himself  a  candidate  for  Representative  in  the  Legisla- 
ture, avowing  in  his  printed  address  substantially  the 
principles  of  Henry  Clay,  and  enlarging  especially  on 
the  feasibility  and  great  advantage  of  making  the  San- 
gamon River  navigable  by  steamboats  to  the  vicinity  of 
Springfield.  Stress  was  also  laid  upon  education  under 
a  public  school  system,  and  upon  legal  restriction  of 
the  rates  of  interest.  As  the  county  was  strongly  Jack- 
sonian,  he  had  little  to  hope  as  a  candidate,  even  after 
his  return  with  a  popular  military  record;  but  he  had 
been  strongly  encouraged  at  the  outset  by  Mr.  Rutledge 
and  others,  who  had  heard  him  speak  at  the  debating 
club,  and  formed  a  high  opinion  of  his  capacity.  They 
assured  him  that  he  would  be  benefited  by  running,  even 
if  defeated.  He  was  beaten,  but  in  his  own  precinct, 
out  of  the  two  hundred  and  eighty-four  votes  polled,  he 
received  two  hundred  and  seventy-five.  The  prestige 
thus  gained  proved  to  be  of  essential  value. 

His  next  adventure  was  joining  with  one  Berry 
in  "keeping  store" — they  buying  cheap  for  credit  the 
goods  and  good-will  of  one  establishment  after  another, 
for  New  Salem  already  showed  signs  of  coming  disso- 
lution. The  consolidated  interests  were  found  before 
spring  to  be  in  a  bad  way,  and  the  summer  of  1833 
had  scarcely  begun  when  Berry  departed,  leaving  all 
the  responsibility  to  Lincoln,  who  manfully  stood  his 
ground,  ultimately  making  good  the  claims  of  every 
creditor.  As  country  storekeeper  he  but  repeated  an 
experience  had  by  Patrick  Henry  and  Andrew  Jackson 
in  their  young  days,  without  better  success.  Before  the 
break-up  Lincoln  was  appointed  postmaster  (May  7, 


36        LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

1833),  and  served  until  the  office  at  New  Salem  was 
closed  (May  28,  1836),  its  business  being  transferred 
to  Petersburg.  His  postal  duties  occupied  little  of  his 
time  and  brought  but  a  pennyworth  of  pay. 

At  this  juncture  his  war  acquaintance,  John  Cal- 
houn, the  Democratic  Surveyor  of  Sangamon  County, 
invited  him  to  become  his  deputy,  and  put  him  in  the 
way  of  the  needed  instruction.  After  a  few  weeks'  study 
of  Flint  and  Gibson  he  became  a  competent  surveyor,  and 
for  the  next  two  or  three  years  found  a  good  business  in 
settling  boundaries,  laying  out  roads  and  making  village 
plats.  In  the  meantime  he  was  preparing  for  admis- 
sion to  the  bar,  as  advised  by  Major  Stuart,  who  loaned 
him  text-books.  All  the  while  he  assiduously  kept  up 
his  historical  and  other  reading.  But  the  cardinal  event 
of  this  period  of  his  life  was  his'  election,  two  years  after 
his  first  candidacy,  as  one  of  the  four  State  Representa- 
tives from  Sangamon  County.  Major  Stuart  and  Cap- 
tain Lincoln  canvassed  the  county  as  Whig  candidates, 
making  speeches  and  "  mixing  "  with  the  people.  No 
caucus  nominations  were  made  in  those  days,  and  there 
were  six  other  candidates  on  the  same  side.  Lincoln 
had  over  two  hundred  votes  more  than  Stuart,  and  the 
two  were  the  only  Whigs  elected. 

It  may  reasonably  be  imagined  that  a  gentleman 
like  Stuart  more  than  once  recalled,  in  the  presence  of 
his  youthful  colleague,  what  Jefferson  and  Randolph 
thought  of  Patrick  Henry  at  nearly  the  same  age,  as 
told  by  Wirt.  "  His  manners,"  wrote  Jefferson,  "  had 
something  of  coarseness  in  them;  his  passion  was  music, 
dancing,  and  pleasantry.  He  excelled  in  the  last,  and 
it  attached  every  one  to  him.     Mr.  Henry  had,  a  little 


POSTMASTER,  SURVEYOR,  LEGISLATOR.  37 

before,  broken  up  his  store,  or  rather  it  had  broken  him 
up;  but  his  misfortunes  were  not  to  be  traced  either  in 
his  countenance  or  conduct."  Omitting  in  the  compar- 
ison both  the  music  and  the  dancing,  it  may  be  added 
that  in  height  and  angularity  the  two  were  as  alike  as  in 
the  other  features  of  this  picture.  A  little  later,  when 
Henry  applied  for  admission  to  the  bar,  Randolph 
(afterward  the  King's  Attorney-General)  "  was  so  much 
shocked  by  Henry's  very  ungainly  figure  and  address 
that  he  refused  to  examine  him."  These  scruples  were 
at  length  overcome,  and  Randolph  became  satisfied  that 
it  was  an  "  erroneous  conclusion  which  he  had  drawn 
from  the  exterior  of  the  candidate." 

The  young  Illinois  legislator  was  at  least  one  not  to 
escape  attention,  and  before  the  close  of  his  two  years' 
term  at  Vandalia  he  had  won  the  favor  and  influence 
that  precede  leadership.  Stuart  was  now  foremost 
among  the  Whig  members  of  the  House,  of  which 
James  Semple,  a  Democrat, —  afterward  United  States 
Senator  —  was  the  Speaker.  The  State  was  rapidly 
filling  up;  land  speculation  was  bringing  in  Eastern 
money;  it  was  an  era  of  great  expectations.  Illinois, 
it  was  claimed,  only  needed  liberal  legislation  toward 
developing  her  latent  powers  to  rival  the  most  pros- 
perous States.  The  Jackson  party  was  in  the  ascend- 
ant, but  the  measures  adopted  did  not  all  accord  with 
the  Jackson  policy.  A  new  State  bank,  with  a  capital 
of  one  million  and  a  half,  was  chartered;  the  old  bank 
at  Shawneetown  —  in  suspended  animation  during  the 
last  dozen  years  —  was  resuscitated;  a  loan  was  granted 
to  the  Illinois  and  Michigan  Canal  Company,  organized 
in  1825;  and  several  railway  corporations,  without  State 


38       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

aid,  were  created.  Among  the  railways  thus  initiated 
were  the  Illinois  Central  and  the  Chicago  and  Galena 
lines. 

It  was  during  the  earlier  session  of  this  Legislature 
that  Lincoln  first  met  Stephen  A.  Douglas,  not  himself 
a  member.  "  He  was  then,"  said  Lincoln,  "  the  least 
man  I  had  ever  seen."  Short  in  stature,  he  was  at  that 
time  exceptionally  thin  and  meager.  Late  in  the  year 
1833,  while  only  in  his  twenty-first  year,  Douglas  had 
come  to  Winchester,  Illinois  (his  native  State  being 
Vermont),  after  a  temporary  stay  at  Cleveland,  Ohio, 
Cincinnati,  and  places  farther  south.  The  next  year  he 
continued  the  study  of  law,  begun  at  Cleveland,  and 
took  part  in  local  politics.  At  this  session  an  act,  of 
which  Douglas  was  an  active  lobby  supporter,  if  not  the 
originator,  was  passed,  taking  from  the  Governor  the 
power  of  appointing  State's  Attorneys  for  the  several 
judicial  districts,  and  providing  for  their  choice  by  the 
Legislature.  Scarcely  as  yet  an  expert  in  the  legal  pro- 
fession, he  presented  himself  as  a  candidate  for  State's 
Attorney  in  his  district  against  John  J.  Hardin,  a  distin- 
guished Whig  lawyer,  then  in  office.  The  movement 
was  so  adroit  that  the  younger  aspirant  distanced  his 
surprised  competitor  by  a  majority  of  two  votes  in  the 
joint  assembly. 

To  this  period  belongs  a  romance,  with  tragic  end- 
ing, current  among  Menard  traditions  thirty  years  later. 
Its  substance  was  then  communicated  to  the  writer,  as 
follows:  "  Miss  Ann  Rutledge  was  a  rosy-cheeked,  blue- 
eyed,  fair-haired  girl,  whose  people  were  a  branch  of  the 
family  of  that  name  so  distinguished  in  the  Carolinas, 


POSTMASTER,  SURVEYOR,  LEGISLATOR.  39 

and  were  regarded  as  rather  aristocratic.  She  died  in 
1835,  in  the  summer.  The  family  left  this  section  a 
few  years  later.  Lincoln's  attachment  to  Miss  Rut- 
ledge  and  his  extraordinary  grief  when  she  died  were 
matters  of  current  interest  among  the  old  settlers  when 
I  first  knew  him." 

While  there  are  different  versions  of  the  story  as 
ultimately  expanded  and  embellished,  it  is  agreed  that 
Ann  had  a  lover  named  McNamar,  to  whom  she  was 
engaged,  at  least  as  early  as  1832.  In  that  or  the  next 
year  he  left  for  a  visit  to  his  former  home  in  the  State  of 
New  York,  promising  an  early  return.  She  never  saw 
him  again,  and  after  two  years,  with  only  occasional 
and  not  reassuring  communications  from  him,  she  died. 
The  relations  of  the  two  were  well  known  to  Lincoln, 
who  was  a  boarder  at  Rutledge's  tavern,  and  his  heart 
was  moved  by  Ann's  disappointment  and  prolonged  sus- 
pense —  for  it  appears  that  she  still  loved  McNamar  — 
"  never  quite  gave  him  up."  About  this  date  Lincoln 
memorized  the  sad  poem,  "  Oh,  why  should  the  spirit 
of  mortal  be  proud?"  which  he  afterward  often  recited. 
It  may  be  that  the  briefer  lines  of  Landor's  "  Rose 
Aylmer "  would  have  better  suited  his  mood  had  he 
known  them.  The  sense  of  a  great  personal  loss  is  not 
the  basis  of  the  most  poignant  grief.  Profound  sorrow 
springs  rather  from  an  infinite  sympathy  for  the  one 
who  has  endured  all  and  is  forever  silent. 

During  the  three  years  in  question,  as  storekeeper, 
captain  of  volunteers,  postmaster  and  surveyor,  he  was 
struggling  for  existence  and  advancement,  actively  em- 
ploying his  spare  time  not  only  in  improving  his  general 
education,  but  also  in  preparation  for  law  practice.     He 


4o       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

was  depressed  by  some  unpleasant  vicissitudes,  such  as 
the  seizure  of  his  horse,  saddle  and  surveying  imple- 
ments to  satisfy  a  judgment  against  him  on  the  notes 
which  were  so  long  a  reminder  of  his  "  mercantile  " 
experience.  The  obligations  now  changed  hands,  his 
friends,  James  Short  and  W.  G.  Greene,  generously 
assuming  the  debts  as  more  gracious  creditors,  releas- 
ing the  property  levied  on.  He  was  also  "  in  politics," 
canvassing  the  county  in  1834,  getting  elected  to  the 
Legislature,  and  attending  its  sessions  during  the  next 
two  winters  at  Vandalia.  All  the  while  he  found  little 
leisure  for  listless  brooding.  He  had  the  same  ambi- 
tious purposes,  and  used  like  methods  to  gain  advance- 
ment, before  and  after  the  event  which  he  lamented  so 
deeply. 

There  are  other  facts  to  be  considered  in  this  con- 
nection. In  1833,  Lincoln  met  and  was  pleased  with 
Miss  Mary  Owens,  of  Kentucky,  then  on  a  visit  to  her 
sister,  his  friend  and  neighbor,  Mrs.  Bennett  Abell. 
The  lady  was  somewhat  older  than  himself,  and  there 
proved  to  be  no  special  affinity  between  them,  as  is 
evident  from  the  slight  correspondence  which  followed 
a  renewal  of  the  acquaintance  in  1836.  This  renewal 
occurred  through  the  instrumentality  of  Mrs.  Abell,  who 
seems  to  have  been  trying  her  hand  at  match-making. 
Finally  Lincoln  brought  the  affair  to  a  crisis  —  rather 
awkwardly,  it  must  be  added  —  by  writing  a  letter,  in 
which  he  formally  offered  his  hand  in  such  terms  as 
he  honestly  could,  though  hardly  suited  to  persuade  a 
romantic  mind.  Her  negative  response  ended  what 
seemed  to  be  a  sense  of  obligation  or  of  virtual  com- 
mitment on  his  part.     The  publication  of  these  letters 


POSTMASTER,  SURVEYOR,  LEGISLATOR.  41 

was  hardly  needed  on  any  account;  yet  they  show  him 
to  have  been  at  this  time  neither  a  very  graceful  wooer, 
nor  one  who  had  taken  a  vow  of  celibacy  at  the  grave 
of  another  a  few  months  before.  Miss  Owens  was  sen- 
sible and  good-natured;  and  between  them  there  was  no 
misunderstanding.  * 

As  if  all  the  other  trials  and  toils  of  the  time  were 
not  enough,  it  has  been  added  that  he  wrote  an  "infidel 
book."  A  very  few  words  will  suffice  for  whatever  there 
is  of  real  basis  for  such  a  tale.  According  to  all  that  is 
known  of  the  matter,  the  "book"  was  nothing  more 
than  a  number  of  manuscript  pages,  discussing  in  a 
rationalistic  way  some  of  the  commonly  received  theo- 
logical opinions  or  dogmas  —  as  "incarnation,"  "atone- 
ment," or  the  like  —  very  probably  going  no  farther 
than  is  now  tolerated  in  many  pulpits  not  reckoned  as 
"  orthodox."  It  is  needless  to  intimate  that  he  can 
have  had  no  ambition  to  be  known  as  an  assailant  of  the 
Bible  or  the  church.  How  wide  was  the  range  of  his 
arguments  can  not  be  told  with  any  certainty,  for  he 
permitted  a  friend  to  put  the  writing  in  the  fire  without 
ceremony.  Nor  is  it  very  material.  If  we  had  it,  we 
should  be  little  wiser  as  to  his  maturer  convictions. 

In  1836,  Lincoln  was  again  a  candidate  for  Repre- 
sentative. Responding  to  a  demand  that  the  Whig  can- 
didates should  "  show  their  hand,"  he  said  through  the 
Springfield  Journal,  under  date  of  June  13th: 

I  go  for  all  sharing  the  privileges  of  the  Government 
who  assist  in  bearing  its  burdens.  Consequently,  I  go  for 
admitting  all  whites  to  the  right  of  suffrage  who  pay  taxes 

*She  married  a  well-to-do  farmer,  named  Vineyard,  not  long 
after,  settling  at  Weston,  Mo.,  where  she  died  in  1877. 


42       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

or  bear  arms  (by  no  means  excluding  females).  If  elected, 
I  shall  consider  the  whole  people  of  Sangamon  County  my 
constituents,  as  well  those  that  oppose  as  those  that  support 
me.  While  acting  as  their  Representative,  I  shall  be  gov- 
erned by  their  will  upon  all  subjects  upon  which  I  have  the 
means  of  knowing  what  their  will  is ;  and  upon  all  others  I 
shall  do  what  my  own  judgment  teaches  me  will  advance 
their  interests.  Whether  elected  or  not,  I  go  for  distrib- 
uting the  proceeds  of  the  sales  of  the  public  lands  to  the 
several  States,  to  enable  our  State,  in  common  with  others, 
to  dig  canals  and  construct  railroads  without  borrowing 
money  and  paying  the  interest  on  it.  If  alive  on  the  first 
Monday  in  November,  I  shall  vote  for  Hugh  L.  White  for 
President. 

Martin  Van  Buren,  the  Democratic  candidate,  was 
opposed  by  a  faction  of  the  party,  who  supported  Sen- 
ator White,  of  Tennessee, —  a  former  personal  friend 
of  Jackson,  but  now  alienated, —  and  with  such  success 
that  the  latter  had  the  chagrin  of  seeing  his  own  State 
lost  to  his  favorite  and  carried  by  his  recusant  enemy. 
The  Whigs  had  no  regular  nominee  —  in  Massachusetts 
voting  for  Daniel  Webster,  and  in  other  Whig  States 
mostly  for  General  W.  H.  Harrison.  Their  only  chance 
for  defeating  Van  Buren  was  in  so  dividing  the  elec- 
toral votes  as  to  throw  the  election  into  the  House  of 
Representatives. 

It  was  in  the  spring  of  this  year  that  Lincoln  first 
became  personally  known  to  Mr.  Joshua  F.  Speed, 
henceforward  his  warm  and  faithful  friend.  Mr.  Speed, 
born  near  Louisville,  Kentucky,  in  1814,  was  a  graduate 
of  St.  Joseph's  College,  at  Bardstown.  After  an  expe- 
rience of  some  years  in  the  largest  wholesale  house  in 
Louisville,  he  opened  a  store  at  Springfield,  in  1835,  on 
his  own  account.     During  the  five  or  six  years  follow- 


POSTMASTER,  SURVEYOR,  LEGISLATOR.  43 

ing  1836  no  one  had  a  closer  intimacy  with  Lincoln, 
who,  before  they  met,  already  had  a  certain  local  fame 
at  the  county  seat.  "  I  heard  him  spoken  of  by  those 
who  knew  him,"  said  Mr.  Speed,  in  1882,  "  as  a  won- 
derful character.  They  boasted  that  he  could  out- 
wrestle  any  man  in  the  county,  and  that  he  could  beat 
any  lawyer  in  Springfield  speaking."  Of  what  he 
thought  was  Lincoln's  first  speech  at  that  place,  Mr. 
Speed  said: 

At  that  time  there  were  but  two  parties,  Whig  and 
Democrat.  Lincoln  was  a  Whig  and  the  leading  man  upon 
the  ticket.  I  was  then  fresh  from  Kentucky,  and  had  heard 
many  of  her  great  orators.  It  seemed  to  me  then,  as  it  seems 
to  me  now,  that  I  never  heard  a  more  effective  speaker.  He 
carried  the  crowd  with  him,  and  swayed  them  as  he  pleased. 
So  deep  an  impression  did  he  make  that  George  Forquer,  a 
man  of  much  celebrity  as  a  sarcastic  speaker  and  great  State 
reputation  as  an  orator,  rose  and  asked  the  people  to  hear 
him.  He  commenced  his  speech  by  saying  that  this  young 
man  would  have  to  be  taken  down,  and  he  was  sorry  that  the 
task  devolved  upon  him.  He  made  what  was  called  one  of 
his  slasher-gaff  speeches,  dealing  much  in  ridicule  and  sar- 
casm. Lincoln  stood  near  him  with  his  arms  folded,  never 
interrupting  him.  When  Forquer  was  done,  Lincoln  walked 
to  the  stand,  and  replied  so  fully  and  completely  that  his 
friends  bore  him  from  the  court-house  on  their  shoulders. 
So  deep  an  impression  did  this  first  speech  make  upon  me 
that  I  remember  its  conclusion  now.  Said  he  "  The  gen- 
tleman commenced  his  speech  by  saying  that  this  young 
man  will  have  to  be  taken  down,  and  he  was  sorry  that  the 
task  devolved  upon  him.  I  am  not  so  young  in  years  as  I 
am  in  the  tricks  and  trades  of  a  politician ;  but,  live  long 
or  die  young,  I  would  rather  die  now  than,  like  the  gentle- 
man, change  my  politics,  and  simultaneously  with  the  change 
receive  an  office  worth  $3,000  a  year,  and  then  have  to  erect 
a  lightning-rod  over  my  house  to  protect  a  guilty  conscience 
from  an  offended  God." 


44       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

Forquer  had  been  a  Whig,  but  changed  his  politics, 
and  had  been  appointed  Register  of  the  Land  Office. 
Over  his  house  was  "  the  only  lightning-rod  in  the  town 
or  county.  Lincoln  had  seen  it  for  the  first  time  on  the 
day  before.  Not  understanding  its  properties,  he  made 
it  a  study  that  night  by  aid  of  a  book,  bought  for  the 
purpose,  till  he  knew  all  about  it." 

The  Whigs  elected  their  Legislative  candidates  in 
Sangamon  County,  with  one  exception,  Lincoln  receiv- 
ing more  than  an  average  vote.  Each  of  the  seven 
Representatives  and  two  Senators  thus  chosen  (the 
number  being  larger  than  at  the  last  election)  was  over 
six  feet  in  height,  and  hence  they  were  called  the  "Long 
Nine."  This  was  the  most  numerous  representation 
from  any  county,  and  attracted  much  notice  from  the 
influence  it  wielded.  Stephen  A.  Douglas  was  a  Rep- 
resentative from  Morgan  County,  having  recently  taken 
up  his  residence  at  Jacksonville.  He  was  never  again 
chosen  to  the  Legislature,  and,  in  fact,  vacated  his  seat 
soon  after  the  first  session,  to  become  Register  of  the 
Land  Office  at  Springfield. 

As  in  the  preceding  House  of  Representatives,  the 
Democrats  had  a  majority;  and  Mr.  Semple  was  again 
the  Speaker.  Lincoln  was  assigned  a  place  on  the 
Financial  Committee.  Besides  the  members  already 
named,  there  were  many  who  were  afterward  prominent 
in  State  or  national  politics,  including  James  Shields, 
Augustus  C.  French,  Robert  Smith,  John  Dougherty, 
William  A.  Richardson,  and  John  A.  McClernand. 
At  both  sessions  Lincoln  came  forward  more  actively, 
gradually  becoming  recognized  as  the  Whig  leader. 

Internal  improvements  were  again  a  prominent  sub- 


POSTMASTER,  SURVEYOR,  LEGISLATOR.  45 

ject  of  legislation.  Under  the  excitement  of  the  flush 
times  of  1836,  this  business  was  indeed  much  overdone. 
Through  subsequent  mismanagement  and  the  revulsion 
of  the  next  year,  the  financial  affairs  of  Illinois  were 
presently  tangled  in  a  knot,  which  seemed  about  to  be 
recklessly  cut  by  a  sharp  stroke  of  repudiation.  Doug- 
las was  one  of  the  most  zealous  for  the  improvements. 
Lincoln  warmly  favored  them.  The  former,  having 
retired  from  the  Legislature  before  the  crisis,  did 
nothing  to  avert  the  discredit  which  came  upon  the 
State,  though  his  party  had  the  responsible  ascendency. 
Lincoln  was  active,  as  the  records  of  the  second  session 
show,  in  his  efforts  to  maintain  honest  dealing  and  to 
provide  some  method  for  satisfying  all  creditors  in 
good  faith. 

At  the  first  session  charters  were  granted  for  a  num- 
ber of  railways,  and  provision  was  made  for  the  comple- 
tion of  the  Illinois  and  Michigan  Canal,  from  Chicago 
to  Peru,  in  La  Salle  County,  and  for  the  improvement 
of  the  navigation  of  the  Kaskaskia,  Illinois,  Rock,  and 
Great  and  Little  Wabash  Rivers,  with  aid  from  the  State 
requiring  in  the  aggregate  a  loan  of  eight  million  dol- 
lars. Scarcely  budded  before  the  storm  of  1837  came, 
these  schemes  were  much  more  luxuriant  in  blossom 
than  bountiful  in  fruit. 

Slavery  agitation  had  begun  anew,  and  in  more 
deadly  earnest,  a  few  years  before.  In  the  South  it  had 
sprung  from  the  roots  of  Nullification  directly  after  that 
baneful  growth  had  been  felled  to  the  ground.  The 
dominant  party  in  the  Illinois  Legislature,  stimulated  by 
a  reference  to  the  subject  in  President  Jackson's  annual 
message  of  December,  1836,  adopted,  near  the  day  of 


46        LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

adjournment,  a  series  of  resolutions  strongly  Southern 
in  tone,  in  regard  to  slavery  and  Abolitionism.  Those 
who  refused  or  hesitated  to  take  this  extreme  ground 
were  in  danger  of  being  called  Abolitionists,  and  that 
was  an  opprobrium  which  few  politicians  felt  able  to 
bear.  There  was  then  little  anti-slavery  sentiment  in 
Central  and  Southern  Illinois,  at  any  rate,  to  sustain  a 
Representative  in  refusing  obsequious  submission  to 
such  resolutions.  Yet  Lincoln  could  not  honestly  vote 
for  them.  He  might  have  remained  silent,  but  he  chose 
to  be  frank  and  open.  He  entered  his  protest  in  the 
House  journal,  joined  by  only  one  other  member,  Dan 
Stone,  a  colleague  from  Sangamon  County.  The  doc- 
ument bears  the  date  of  the  last  day  of  Andrew  Jack- 
son's Presidency,  March  3,  1837.  In  it  Lincoln  declared 
(for  the  language  is  his  own)  his  belief: 

1.  That  "the  institution  of  slavery  is  founded  on  both 
injustice  and  bad  policy ;  but  that  the  promulgation  of 
Abolition  doctrines  tends  rather  to  increase  than  to  abate 
its  evils." 

2.  That  "  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  has  no 
power,  under  the  Constitution,  to  interfere  with  the  institu- 
tion of  slavery  in  the  different  States." 

3.  That  "  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  has  the 
power,  under  the  Constitution,  to  abolish  slavery  in  the  Dis- 
trict of  Columbia ;  but  that  the  power  ought  not  to  be  exer- 
cised unless  at  the  request  of  the  people  of  said  District." 

It  was  near  the  close  of  the  same  session  that  an  act 
was  passed  removing  the  State  capital  from  Vandalia 
to  Springfield,  a  measure  due  more  to  the  exertions  of 
Lincoln  than  of  any  other  member,  even  of  the  "  Long 
Nine."  The  first  capital,  Kaskaskia,  was  convenient 
enough,  if  not  quite  central,  for  the  small  population 


POSTMASTER,  SURVEYOR,  LEGISLATOR.  47 

provided  with  a  territorial  government  in  1809.  On 
the  admission  of  Illinois  as  a  State  in  1818,  Vandalia, 
far  up  the  Kaskaskia  River,  was  laid  out  as  the  new  seat 
of  government.  This  was  well  to  the  southwest,  in  the 
heart  of  what  has  since  been  known  as  the  "  Egypt  " 
of  the  State.  But  during  the  several  years  immediately 
preceding  1837,  the  center  of  population  had  gradually 
moved  northward,  as  the  middle  and  upper  parts  of 
the  State  were  becoming  more  extensively  settled.  As 
usual  in  like  cases,  many  rival  towns  were  competing 
for  the  prize  when  the  question  arose  as  to  another  cap- 
ital, expected  to  be  the  permanent  and  final  one.  There 
was  of  course  a  formidable  Vandalia  interest  opposed  to 
change.  But  after  a  severe  and  protracted  contest  — 
the  battle  at  one  time  seeming  to  all  the  Springfield 
party  except  Lincoln  to  have  been  irretrievably  lost  — 
the  act  for  removal  to  their  locality  was  passed,  to  take 
effect  July  4,  1839. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

1 837- 1 840. 

Admitted    to    the    Bar —  Removal    to    Springfield  —  Law, 
Politics  and  Personalities. 

Lincoln  was  admitted  to  the  bar  "  in  the  autumn  of 
1836."  *  He  began  practice  at  Springfield  as  partner 
of  Major  John  T.  Stuart  in  the  following  spring,  his 
residence  there  beginning  (as  he  said  to  the  writer  in 
i860)  "  on  the  15th  of  April.''  Boarding  with  William 
Butler,  afterward  State  Treasurer,  he  shared  the  lodg- 
ings of  Joshua  F\  Speed  over  the  store  of  the  latter,  a 
recent  comer  from  Louisville.  As  one  of  the  Sanga- 
mon "  Long  Nine,"  known  as  the  longest  and  most 
efficient  in  removing  the  capital,  he  was  cordially  wel- 
comed to  the  place  which  was  ever  after  to  be  his  home. 
While  the  State  had  made  a  great  advance  since  1830, 
its  northern  half  was  still  but  sparsely  settled.  Chi- 
cago was  yet  an  unimportant  if  not  unpromising  vil- 
lage. Alton  was  eminently  the  ambitious  town,  hoping 
to  surpass  or  even  to  supplant  St.  Louis.  Springfield 
had  now  not  more  than  twelve  hundred  inhabitants  — 
a  number  soon  to  be  largely  exceeded.  Its  bar  already 
included  several  names  that  were  to  be  distinguished  in 
the  profession  and  in  public  life. 

The  United  States  District  Court  and  the  Supreme 


*These  are  his  own  words.    Mr.  Herndon  gives  a  later  date. 

(48) 


LAW— POLITICS— PERSONALITIES.       49 

Court  of  Illinois  soon  came  to  hold  their  sessions  here, 
and  there  were  annually  three  terms  of  the  Common 
Pleas  Court  of  Sangamon  County.  Circuit  practice 
as  then  prevalent  also  occupied  several  weeks  each 
year  in  making  the  rounds  of  the  dozen  other  coun- 
ties of  the  Eighth  District,  judges  and  lawyers  travel- 
ing mainly  by  private  conveyance.  Roads  were  bad 
and  tavern  accommodations  simple.  The  court-houses 
were  neither  sightly  nor  spacious.  These  pilgrimages 
had  their  adventures  and  tales,  which  a  Chaucer  might 
not  have  been  tempted  to  idealize  in  rhyme,  but  which 
were  not  lacking  in  charm  for  the  pilgrims.  The  ar- 
rival of  court  officers,  attorneys,  litigants,  witnesses  and 
jurors  at  the  opening  of  a  term  was  an  epoch  for  the 
little  village,  nominal  or  real,  in  which  justice  had  a 
local  dwelling.  Attending  court  was  one  of  the  chief 
diversions  of  a  people  having  as  yet  neither  drama, 
circus,  menagerie,  nor  county  fair.  Of  evenings  and 
in  daylight  intermissions  of  court  there  were  eager 
listeners  as  these  errant  knights  interchanged  stories, 
indulged  in  short,  sharp  debates,  or  bandied  jokes  and 
repartees.  These  were  scenes  which  Lincoln  was  sel- 
dom inclined  to  shun.  On  such  occasions  he  cast  care 
to  the  winds,  and  might  have  been  thought  the  hap- 
piest spirit  of  all.  In  his  tours,  however,  he  passed 
many  hours  or  sometimes  a  whole  day  alone.  Jogging 
along  on  horseback  through  arduous  ways,  made  still 
more  tedious  by  mud  or  flood,  he  was  absorbed  in  medi- 
tation or  profound  study.  Sometimes  in  a  vehicle  with 
one  or  two  companions,  he  might  seem  to  be  rather 
thinking  aloud  than  conversing,  his  mind  wandering 
over  a  wide  area,  from  his  own  obscure  days  and  varied 


50       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

fortunes  to  higher  topics  of  national  life  and  human 
destiny.  In  general,  his  early  practice  involved  few 
weighty  questions  or  heavy  stakes,  and  brought  him 
scanty  fees. 

Recalling  his  three  or  four  years  of  intimate  associa- 
tion with  him,  beginning  in  1837,  Mr.  Speed  said  Lin- 
coln "  was  a  social  man,  though  he  did  not  seek  com- 
pany," adding,  "  after  he  had  his  home  with  me,  on 
every  winter's  night  at  my  store,  by  a  big  wood  fire,  no 
matter  how  inclement  the  weather,  eight  or  ten  choice 
spirits  assembled,  without  distinction  of  party.  It  was 
a  sort  of  social  club  without  organization.  They  came 
there  because  they  were  sure  to  find  Lincoln.  His 
habit  was  to  engage  in  conversation  upon  any  and  all 
subjects  except  politics." 

It  happened,  nevertheless,  that  one  evening,  in  the 
winter  preceding  the  Presidential  canvass  of  1840,  he 
became  involved  in  a  political  argument  with  Douglas, 
then  Register  of  the  Land  Office  at  Springfield.  As 
the  discussion  grew  warm,  Douglas  sprang  to  his  feet 
and  said:  "  Gentlemen,  this  is  no  place  to  talk  poli- 
tics; we  will  discuss  the  questions  publicly  with  you." 
Not  long  after  there  was  a  meeting  of  Whigs,  and  a 
challenge  to  the  Democrats  for  a  joint  debate  between 
champions  of  the  parties.  This  was  accepted,  the  Dem- 
ocrats choosing  on  their  part  Messrs.  Douglas,  Lam- 
born,  Calhoun,  and  Jesse  B.  Thomas  —  former  Senator 
from  Illinois,  and  famed  for  his  connection  with  the 
Missouri  Compromise  legislation.  The  Whigs  elected 
as  their  speakers  Messrs.  Logan,  Baker,  Browning,  and 
Lincoln.     The  debate  took  place  in  the  Presbyterian 


LAW— POLITICS— PERSONALITIES.       51 

church  —  where  the  Legislature  held  its  sessions  after 
the  capital  was  removed  until  the  completion  of  the  new 
State  House.  Large  audiences  were  present,  each  of 
the  eight  speakers  having  one  night  to  himself.  The 
date — January,  1840, — will  sufficiently  indicate  the  gen- 
eral nature  of  the  discussion.  General  Harrison  had 
already  been  nominated  at  Harrisburg  for  the  Presi- 
dency; Van  Buren's  re-nomination  was  certain  in  the 
near  future.  Here,  though  little  heard  of  in  the  wide 
land,  was  an  opening  cannonade  —  long  locally  famous 
as  the  "great  debate" — in  the  remarkable  campaign  of 
the  year  just  begun.  Lincoln  wrote  his  speech,  though 
it  was  delivered  without  notes  of  any  kind;  and  it  was 
soon  after  printed,  filling  seven  columns  of  the  Sanga- 
mon Journal.  The  leading  topic  of  all  the  speeches  was 
Van  Buren's  sub-treasury  method  for  "  collecting,  safe- 
keeping, transferring,  and  disbursing  the  revenues  of 
the  nation,  as  contrasted  with  a  National  Bank  for  the 
same  purposes."  Alleged  extravagant  expenditures  — 
"  gold  spoons  "  for  the  White  House  and  other  incon- 
gruities in  oppressively  hard  times  —  naturally  found 
place  among  incidental  diversions  from  the  solid  sub- 
ject. Lincoln,  making  the  closing  speech  of  the  series, 
was  of  course  expected  to  reply  to  whatever  he  thought 
needed  such  attention  in  the  speeches  of  the  other  side. 
He  unhesitatingly  grappled  with  the  stoutest  arguments 
of  the  Democratic  champions;  but  a  little  by-play  of  less 
gravity  probably  gave  more  pleasure  to  the  audience. 
One  specimen  will  illustrate  this  feature  of  his  speech: 

Mr.  Lamborn  insists  that  the  difference  between  the  Van 
Buren  party  and  the  Whigs  is,  that,  although  the  former 


52       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

sometimes  err  in  practice,  they  are  always  correct  in  prin- 
ciple, whereas  the  latter  are  wrong  in  principle,  and,  the 
better  to  impress  this  proposition,  he  uses  a  figurative  ex- 
pression in  these  words :  "  The  Democrats  are  vulnerable  in 
the  heel,  but  they  are  sound  in  the  heart  and  head."  The 
first  branch  of  the  figure — that  is,  that  the  Democrats  are 
vulnerable  in  the  heel — I  admit  is  not  merely  figuratively 
but  literally  true.  Who  that  looks  but  for  a  moment  at  their 
Swartwouts,  their  Prices,  their  Harringtons,  and  their  hun- 
dreds of  others,  scampering  away  with  the  public  money  to 
Texas,  to  Europe,  and  to  every  spot  on  earth  where  a  villain 
may  hope  to  find  refuge  from  justice,  can  at  all  doubt  that 
they  are  most  distressingly  affected  in  their  heels  with  a  spe- 
cies of  "running  itch"?  It  seems  that  the  malady  of  their 
heels  operates  on  the  sound-headed  and  honest-hearted  crea- 
tures very  much  like  the  cork  leg  in  the  comic  song  on  its 
owner,  which,  when  he  had  once  started  on  it,  the  more  he 
tried  to  stop  it,  the  more  it  would  run  away.  At  the  haz- 
ard of  wearing  the  point  threadbare,  I  will  relate  an  anecdote 
which  seems  to  be  too  strikingly  in  point  to  be  omitted.  A 
witty  Irish  soldier  who  was  always  boasting  of  his  bravery 
when  no  danger  was  near,  but  who  invariably  retreated  with- 
out orders  at  the  first  charge  of  the  engagement,  being  asked 
by  his  captain  why  he  did  so,  replied:  "Captain,  I  have  as 
brave  a  heart  as  Julius  Caesar  ever  had,  but,  somehow  or 
other,  whenever  danger  approaches  my  cowardly  legs  will 
run  away  with  it."  So  with  Mr.  Lamborn's  party.  They 
take  the  public  money  into  their  hands  for  the  most  laudable 
purpose  that  wise  heads  and  honest  hearts  can  dictate;  but, 
before  they  can  possibly  get  it  out  again,  their  rascally  vul- 
nerable heels  will  run  away  with  them. 

Referring,  near  the  close  of  his  speech,  to  Mr.  Lam- 
born's argument,  founded  upon  the  indications  of  re- 
cent State  elections,  that  Van  Buren  was  sure  to  be 
re-elected,  Lincoln  gave  his  imagination  free  range 
among  bold  metaphors  in  denunciation  of  the  admin- 
istration — "  the  great  volcano  at  Washington,"  that 
was  "  belching  forth  the  lava  of  political  corruption  in 


LAW— POLITICS— PERSONALITIES        53 

a  current  broad   and   deep,"   by  which   "  all   may  be 
swept  away." 

The  probability  that  we  may  fall  in  the  struggle  [he 
said]  ought  not  to  deter  us  from  the  support  of  a  cause  we 
believe  to  be  just.  It  shall  not  deter  me.  If  ever  I  feel  the 
soul  within  me  dilate  and  expand  to  those  dimensions  not 
wholly  unworthy  of  its  Almighty  Architect,  it  is  when  I 
contemplate  the  cause  of  my  country,  deserted  by  all  the 
world  beside,  and  I  standing  up  boldly,  alone,  hurling  defi- 
ance at  her  victorious  oppressors.  Here,  without  contem- 
plating consequences,  before  heaven  and  in  the  face  of  the 
world,  I  swear  eternal  fealty  to  the  just  cause,  as  I  deem 
it,  of  the  land  of  my  life,  my  liberty,  and  my  love.  And  who 
{that  thinks  with  me  will  not  fearlessly  adopt  the  oath  that 
I  take  ?  Let  none  falter  who  thinks  he  is  right,  and  we  may 
succeed.  But  if,  after  all,  we  shall  fail,  be  it  so ;  we  still  shall 
have  the  proud  consolation  of  saying  to  our  consciences,  and 
!to  the  departed  shade  of  our  country's  freedom,  that  the 
cause  approved  of  our  judgment  and  adored  of  our  hearts, 
in  disaster,  in  chains,  in  torture,  in  death,  we  never  faltered 
in  defending. 

This  was  one  of  his  first  published  speeches,  not  alto- 
gether faultless  in  style  or  in  the  main  of  much  moment, 
yet,  judged  in  the  light  of  later  history,  there  is  some- 
thing more  than  mere  declamation  —  something  almost 
prophetic  withal  —  in  these  final  sentences. 

At  this  time  he  was  in  his  third  term  as  Representa- 
tive, to  which  he  had  been  chosen  in  1838.  While  he 
had  been  gaining  a  living  practice  at  the  bar,  he  had 
also  been  growing  in  prominence  as  a  political  leader, 
so  that  in  the  organization  of  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives he  was  the  choice  of  the  Whigs  for  Speaker, 
and  received  a  vote  but  slightly  less  than  that  of  his 
Democratic  competitor. 

He  again  served  on  the  Finance  Committee,  which 


54        LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

had  vexations  enough  in  seeking  to  relieve  the  State 
from  disastrous  entanglements  of  its  banking,  loan  and 
improvement  system.  Lincoln  was  not  an  expert  finan- 
cier, certainly,  nor  did  the  methods  he  proposed  find 
favor  with  the  majority,  except  in  the  first  element  of 
financial  wisdom,  good  faith  with  public  creditors. 

He  was  chosen  to  the  House  of  Representatives  for 
the  fourth  time  in  1840,  and  was  again  the  candidate 
of  the  Whig  minority  for  Speaker.  Named  for  elector 
on  the  Harrison  ticket,  he  spent  much  time  in  canvass- 
ing the  central  counties  of  the  State  especially,  bearing 
the  brunt  of  the  Presidential  battle  on  the  Whig  side, 
either  Douglas  or  Calhoun  being  usually  at  hand  to 
reply.  Lincoln  regarded  the  latter  as  the  harder  to 
meet.  Illinois  could  not  be  wrested  from  the  Demo- 
cratic party,  but  the  efforts  made  were  not  wasted  on 
so  helpless  a  cause  as  Lamborn's  predictions  implied, 
and  Van  Buren's  defeat  brought  with  it  the  delusive 
prospect  of  better  days  for  the  Whigs. 

Douglas,  then  holding  the  comparatively  lucrative 
position  of  Register  of  the  Land  Office,  given  him  by 
Van  Buren,  continued  to  press  forward  with  character- 
istic energy.  He  had  already  made  one  canvass  as  a 
Congressional  candidate,  and  was  beaten  by  Major 
Stuart  (Lincoln's  partner)  by  so  close  a  vote  that  he 
was  for  some  time  disposed  to  contest  the  seat.  A  bill 
to  abolish  the  Supreme  and  Circuit  Courts  of  Illinois 
and  providing  a  new  judiciary  organization  —  origi- 
nated and  lobbied  for  by  Douglas,  and  alleged  to  have 
a  partisan  object  —  was  passed  by  the  Legislature, 
Lincoln,  Baker,  and  thirty-three  other  Whig  members 
filing   their   protest   against   it.      Dan    Stone    and   the 


LAW— POLITICS— PERSONALITIES.       55 

other  Whig  judges  having  thus  been  ousted,  Douglas 
himself  and  other  Democrats  were  appointed  to  the 
newly  constituted  bench. 

As  a  lawyer,  Lincoln  was  always  inclined  to  enter 
heartily  into  the  cause  of  one  whom  he  believed  to  be 
wronged,  yet  lacking  means  to  secure  legal  redress  on 
ordinary  terms.  Many  cases  which  brought  him  little 
or  no  pecuniary  return,  afforded  him  more  than  com- 
pensating satisfaction  in  having  protected  the  weak 
against  tyrannous  injustice.  One  instance  was  that  of 
a  poor  widow,  of  whose  pension  arrears  a  greedy  attor- 
ney had  kept  quite  an  undue  share.  When  her  case  was 
stated  to  Lincoln,  he  not  only  interested  himself  in  her 
behalf,  but  became  indignant,  and  secured  prompt  retri- 
bution without  legal  process  or  fee.  He  was  occasion- 
ally the  attorney  for  a  negro  defendant  whose  freedom 
was  in  question,  though  at  the  risk  of  prejudice  to  his 
political  standing.  Without  resorting  to  the  courts,  he 
secured  the  release  of  a  free  negro  of  Illinois,  who  had 
landed  from  a  steamer  in  New  Orleans  in  violation  of  a 
local  law,  and  was  to  have  been  sold  for  want  of  means 
to  pay  his  fine.  Lincoln  raised  the  needed  money,  him- 
self a  contributor,  choosing  an  immediate  practical  rem- 
edy without  delaying  justice  by  inflammatory  talk.  He 
was  retained  in  a  suit  brought  in  Tazewell  County  in 
1839  to  enforce  payment  of  a  promissory  note  given 
in  payment  for  a  negro  woman  named  Nance  —  a  relic 
of  the  "  vested  rights  "  of  certain  French  slaveholders 
before  the  Louisiana  Purchase  —  the  parties  in  court 
being  residents  of  Illinois.  Lincoln  was  counsel  for  the 
defendant;  and  judgment  having  been  rendered  for  the 
plaintiff,  an  appeal  was  taken  to  the  Illinois  Supreme 


56       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

Court.  Before  that  tribunal  he  argued  the  case  in  1841, 
maintaining  that  the  contract  was  void  for  lack  of  con- 
sideration; that  under  the  ordinance  of  1789  and  the 
Constitution  of  Illinois  adopted  in  1818,  slavery  had  no 
lawful  standing;  and  that  Nance  being  legally  a  free 
woman,  could  not  be  the  subject  of  a  sale.  His  conten- 
tion was  sustained  by  the  court,  and  the  question  as  to 
slavery  in  Illinois  was  settled.  * 

He  sometimes  defended  an  alleged  fugitive  slave, 
but  did  not  refuse  to  act  as  counsel  for  a  Kentuckian 
seeking  to  reclaim  certain  slaves  he  had  voluntarily 
brought  into  Illinois  for  temporary  employment.  His 
client,  one  Matteson,  of  Bourbon  County,  had  put  some 
of  his  slaves  at  work  on  a  farm  in  Coles  County,  Illinois. 
It  appears  that  these  servants  would  have  been  willing 
to  return  to  Kentucky  when  required  by  their  master, 
but  for  philanthropic  intervention  through  an  appeal  to 
the  local  court.  It  can  hardly  be  supposed  that  Lincoln 
was  at  all  disappointed  in  losing  his  case.  It  is  a  relief, 
however,  to  have  so  good  a  proof  —  after  all  that  has 
been  told  to  the  contrary  —  that  he  had  no  invincible 
objection  to  a  good  client  with  a  bad  cause. 

At  Danville,  in  Vermillion  County,  which  borders  on 
Indiana,  he  had  a  case  in  1842,  in  which  John  J.  Brown, 
his  client,  was  the  plaintiff,  and  Mr.  Juneau,  of  Mil- 
waukee, was  the  defendant,  whose  attorney  was  John 
P.  Usher,  twenty  years  later  Secretary  of  the  Interior 
Department.  It  was  a  complicated  case,  growing  out 
of  a  speculative  transaction.  Lincoln  gained  the  suit 
not  only  in  this  first  trial,  but  afterward  on  appeal  to 

*  Notwithstanding,  it  was  later  alleged  by  Douglas,  in  debate,  that 
Illinois  had  been  a  slave  state. 


LAW— POLITICS— PERSONALITIES.       57 

the  Supreme  Court.  Mr.  Usher,  who  here  met  him  for 
the  first  time  and  knew  him  well  thenceforward,  said  of 
his  manner  of  addressing  a  jury,  that  his  voice  was  so 
smooth  and  attractive  as  never  to  become  wearisome; 
that  in  posture  and  gesture  he  was  not  graceful  or 
always  dignified  —  sometimes  placing  one  foot  in  a 
chair,  or  leaning  on  the  back  of  one,  sometimes  stand- 
ing with  his  arms  akimbo;  but  that  he  never  failed  of 
being  listened  to  with  close  attention  and  lively  interest 
from  the  beginning  to  the  end  of  his  argument. 

During  his  last  term  in  the  Legislature,  Lincoln  was 
for  some  time  in  a  state  of  serious  mental  depression. 
As  told  by  his  friend  Speed: 

In  the  winter  of  1 841  a  gloom  came  over  him  till  his 
friends  were  alarmed  for  his  life.  ...  In  his  deepest 
gloom,  and  when  I  told  him  he  would  die  unless  he  rallied, 
he  said:  "I  am  not  afraid,  and  would  be  more  than  willing. 
But  I  have  an  irrepressible  desire  to  live  till  I  can  be  assured 
that  the  world  is  a  little  better  for  my  having  lived  in  it." 
...  In  the  early  summer  of  1841  Mr.  Lincoln  came  to 
Kentucky  and  spent  several  months  at  Farmington,  the  home 
of  my  mother,  near  this  city  (Louisville). 

He  returned  from  this  visit  with  restored  health,  and 
resumed  his  professional  business  in  September.  There 
was  nothing  really  dangerous  in  these  moods,  as  the 
event  always  proved  —  for  this  was  neither  the  first  nor 
the  last  of  his  experiences  of  like  sort.  One  cause  may 
be  readily  discerned  by  those  who  know  the  effects  of 
such  a  persistent  malarious  influence  as  he  had  always 
been  exposed  to.  He  was  subject  to  glooms  of  the 
darkest  blue,  but  without  entirely  losing  self-control 
when  they  were  at  the  worst.     To  Mr.  Speed,  who  was 


58       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

himself  given  to  like  depressions,  he  later  suggested 
that  it  was  only  necessary  to  bear  in  mind  that  he 
would  soon  be  well  again,  to  retain  his  balance,  and  to 
live  down  the  trouble.  Those  who  knew  him  best  were 
aware  that  what  he  specially  needed  at  such  a  time  was 
genial  companionship,  and  that  nothing  would  more 
quickly  and  completely  dispel  the  mists  than  social  sun- 
shine. Once  before,  in  one  of  his  darkest  periods,  this 
treatment  had  been  successfully  tried  at  New  Salem. 

Plainly,  his  outlook  for  the  future  was  not  at  this 
time  such  as  to  inspire  cheerfulness.  He  had  been  three 
or  four  years  at  Springfield,  gaining  ground,  to  be  sure, 
but  not  receiving  an  ample  income.  Major  Stuart  had 
taken  his  seat  in  Congress,  and  in  April  (1841)  their 
partnership  was  to  end.  It  must  be  remembered,  too, 
that  sedentary  life  could  not  but  unfavorably  affect  one 
hitherto  wont  to  be  much  out  of  doors  and  to  give  vig- 
orous exercise  to  his  robust  physical  powers.  There 
was  otherwise  a  great  contrast  between  the  life  led 
here  and  that  almost  wild  freedom  enjoyed  in  the  little 
Salem  hamlet.  He  had  at  once  passed  into  a  greatly 
different  state  of  society.  Now,  too,  he  was  at  an 
age  (past  thirty)  when  to  many  minds  the  world  begins 
to  wear  its  most  serious  aspect,  and  when  disappoint- 
ment over  youthful  dreams  unrealized  quite  eclipses  the 
satisfaction  of  partial  success  and  dims  the  light  of 
sanguine  hope. 

Sensitiveness  and  modesty  were  as  native  to  him  as 
bold  strength  and  courage  —  a  seeming  paradox,  but  a 
truth  to  be  remembered  in  trying  to  comprehend  a  char- 
acter so  unique.  Two  significant  incidents  of  about  this 
date  may  be  taken  as  rather  an  illustration  than  a  digres- 


LAW— POLITICS— PERSONALITIES.       59 

sion.  The  exciting  political  canvass  of  1840  had  come 
to  the  final  issue  at  the  polls.  On  the  line  of  railway 
then  in  construction,  near  by,  there  was  a  large  gang 
of  laborers,  mostly  of  the  "  alien  "  class,  whose  right 
to  vote  had  been  denied,  but  sustained  by  the  new 
Supreme  Court  organized  under  the  "  Douglas  bill." 
The  contractor  who  employed  them  was  an  ardent 
Democrat,  and  on  election  day  it  came  to  the  ears  of 
Lincoln  that  he  had  marched  up  his  battalion  of  voters 
and  taken  possession  of  one  of  the  polling  places.  It 
was  not  a  question  now  whether  these  men  should  be 
allowed  to  vote;  but  that  they  should  refuse  honest 
voters  access  to  the  ballot-box  was  not  to  be  borne 
with  resignation.  With  true  Berserker  rage  he  hurried 
to  the  scene,  faced  the  offenders,  and  —  without  need 
of  blows  —  drove  back  the  riotous  crowd.  From  the 
statements  of  Mr.  Speed,  who  gave  the  substance  of 
this  account  from  his  own  knowledge,  it  appears  that 
Lincoln  started,  cudgel  in  hand,  under  an  impulse  to 
clear  the  way  to  the  polls  by  force. 

The  other  incident  also  rests  on  the  authority  of 
Mr.  Speed.  One  day  Lincoln,  Baker,  Hardin,  Speed 
and  others  were  riding  on  horseback  along  the  road, 
two-and-two,  some  distance  from  Springfield.  In  pass- 
ing a  thicket  of  wild  plum  and  crab  apple  trees,  Lincoln 
and  Hardin  being  in  the  rear,  the  former  discovered  by 
the  roadside  two  young  birds  not  old  enough  to  fly. 
They  had  been  shaken  from  their  nest  by  a  recent  gale. 
"  The  old  bird,"  said  Mr.  Speed,  "  was  fluttering  about 
and  wailing  as  a  mother  ever  does  for  her  babes.  Lin- 
coln stopped,  hitched  his  horse,  caught  the  birds,  hunted 
the  nest,  and  placed  them  in  it.     The  rest  of  us  rode  on 


60       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

to  a  creek,  and  while  the  horses  were  drinking..  Hardin 
rode  up.  '  Where  is  Lincoln?'  said  one.  '  Oh,  when  I 
saw  him  last  he  had  two  little  birds  in  his  hand  hunting 
for  their  nest.'  In  perhaps  an  hour  he  came.  They 
laughed  at  him.  He  said,  with  much  emphasis,  '  Gen- 
tlemen, you  may  laugh,  but  I  could  not  have  slept  well 
to-night  if  I  had  not  saved  those  birds.  Their  cries 
would  have  rung  in  my  ears/  " 


CHAPTER  V. 

1841. 

Mary  Todd  —  A  Broken  Engagement  —  Depression  —  Visit 

to  Kentucky  —  Letter  to  Miss  Speed  —  An 

Interesting  Law  Case. 

It  was  about  the  year  1839  that  Lincoln  first  met 
Miss  Mary  Todd.  Born  at  Lexington,  Kentucky,  De- 
cember 13,  1818,  she  was  one  of  four  daughters  of 
Robert  S.  Todd  by  his  first  wife,  whose  maiden  name 
was  Elizabeth  Parker.  Mary  was  quite  young  at  the 
time  of  her  mother's  death,  and  ere  long  came  under 
the  care  of  a  stepmother.  She  received  a  good  educa- 
tion in  the  higher  schools  of  her  native  city,  and  learned 
to  read  and  speak  the  French  language  in  the  private 
school  of  a  French  lady,  nearly  opposite  the  "Ash- 
land" mansion  of  Henry  Clay.  The  house  of  her  eldest 
sister  at  Springfield,  after  the  latter's  marriage  to  Mr. 
Edwards  —  colleague  of  Lincoln  in  the  Legislature,  and 
son  of  a  former  United  States  Senator  —  was  open  to 
Mary  and  her  other  sisters  whenever  they  chose  to  be 
there,  rather  than  with  their  stepmother  and  a  number 
of  brothers  and  sisters  of  the  half-blood.  Mary  came  to 
live  there  soon  after  her  school-days  at  Lexington  were 
ended.  Major  Stuart  was  her  cousin,  his  mother  being 
a  daughter  of  Levi  Todd,  Mary's  grandfather.     Her  sis- 

(61) 


62        LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

ters  Frances  and  Anne  were  married  in  Springfield  — 
the  former  to  Dr.  Wallace,  and  the  other,  later,  to  a 
successful  merchant  of  that  place,  Mr.  C.  M.  Smith.  A 
young  lady  of  unusual  personal  attractions  and  bright 
intellectual  faculties,  Mary  was  also  of  agreeable  man- 
ners. She  was  not  long  without  admirers,  if  she  may 
not  have  been  properly  called  the  "  belle  "  of  the  place. 
The  higher  and  more  exclusive  circles  of  her  native 
city  to  which  she  belonged  were  unsurpassed  in  social 
refinement  and  mental  cultivation  in  any  Southern 
community  of  the  time  west  of  the  Alleghanies. 

Of  all  her  sex  with  whom  Lincoln  had  become  ac- 
quainted, Mary  Todd  was  undoubtedly  the  one  best 
suited  to  win  his  admiration  and  a  more  tender  regard. 
Aside  from  the  dissimilarity  in  their  earlier  training  and 
position,  however,  there  was  a  considerable  difference 
in  their  years,  he  being  past  thirty,  and  she  little  more 
than  twenty.  At  his  age,  an  attachment  of  this  sort  is 
likely  to  be  very  earnest;  at  hers,  the  spirits  more  vola- 
tile, with  any  young  tendency  to  coquetry  yet  undis- 
ciplined, and  with  maidenly  ways  sometimes  provoca- 
tive of  resentment  or  despair  in  a  sensitive  lover.  The 
lady  was  ambitious;  dazzled  by  the  glory  of  the  great 
statesman  to  whom  her  father  was  a  personal  and  polit- 
ical friend,  her  highest  ideal  of  manhood  was  typified 
by  the  eloquent  orator  and  expectant  President.  She 
received  attentions  from  two  persons  who  took  a  lead- 
ing part,  on  opposite  sides,  in  the  Harrison  canvass  — 
one  tall  and  ungainly,  yet  amiable,  modest,  kind-hearted, 
already  noted  as  a  speaker  and  aspiring  to  a  higher  posi- 
tion than  he  had  been  given  by  prolonged  legislative 
service;  the  other  low  in  stature,  but  strong  in  energy 


MARY  TODD— VISIT  TO  KENTUCKY.     63 

and  pluck,  graceful  in  manner,  bold,  ready,  and  pleasing 
in  speech,  as  ambitious  as  his  rival,  and  deemed  by  his 
friends  a  more  eloquent  orator,  though  on  what  was  to 
her  the  wrong  side.  She  preferred  the  principles  and 
habits  of  Lincoln  to  those  of  Douglas,  as  she  avowed 
afterward;  and  if  she  was  also  influenced  by  ambition, 
her  political  intuition  —  famous  in  later  life  —  was  not 
now  at  fault.  To  a  friend  of  her  girlhood  she  wrote 
of  her  engagement,  speaking  plainly  of  the  defects  of 
her  intended  husband,  in  personal  appearance  especially, 
and  adding:  "  But  I  mean  to  make  him  President  of  the 
United  States.  You  will  see  that,  as  I  always  told  you, 
I  will  yet  be  the  President's  wife." 

They  were  to  have  been  married  on  New  Year's 
day,  1 84 1,  but  Lincoln  failed  to  keep  that  engagement. 
Without  being  reasonably  accounted  for,  his  conduct 
was  unpardonable.  Months  afterward  it  certainly  was 
pardoned,  hence  it  must  have  been  somehow  explained 
to  the  person  who  had  a  right  to  know  the  reason. 
Whether  the  alarming  depression  previously  noticed 
as  of  this  period  began  before  or  after  the  appointed 
wedding  day  —  whether  it  was  in  this  instance  in  some 
degree  cause  or  effect  —  is  not  clear.  Lincoln  was 
superstitious,  and  that  New  Year's  fell  on  a  Friday.  Did 
that  have  any  effect?  How  happened  it,  then,  that  the 
marriage  subsequently  took  place  on  the  same  discred- 
ited day  of  the  week?  All  that  is  said  of  the  matter 
in  his  intimate  correspondence  with  Mr.  Speed  reveals 
little  more  than  that  both  these  bachelors  —  like  so 
many  others  (Thomas  Carlyle,  for  one)  —  had  a  morbid 
dread  or  misgiving  on  coming  directly  in  face  of  the 
matrimonial  altar. 


64       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

While  absent  in  Kentucky  during  much  of  the  sum- 
mer of  1 84 1,  at  the  homestead  of  the  Speed  family,  the 
invalid  proved  to  be  neither  intractable  nor  unsuscep- 
tible to  their  well-advised  remedies.  There  were  out- 
door activities  and  trips  to  Lexington  and  elsewhere; 
new  acquaintances  were  made;  the  two  old  friends  con- 
fided to  each  other  their  very  hearts;  and  Lincoln  was 
introduced  to  a  black-eyed  lady  whom  Speed  was  to 
marry.  If  the  terrible  depression  had  any  relation  to 
Ann  Rutledge  —  as  Herndon  imagined  —  not  a  breath 
of  it  was  lisped,  as  naturally  would  have  happened,  to 
Speed,  now  or  ever  after.  To  him  the  legend  was  "  all 
new  "  when  Herndon  made  the  suggestion  to  him  — 
so  he  expressly  said  —  in  1866. 

Lincoln  and  Speed  returned  to  Illinois  together, 
going  by  steamboat  to  St.  Louis,  and  thence  more 
directly  to  Springfield,  where  the  former  found  busi- 
ness awaiting  him  and  a  tour  of  the  circuit  to  be 
made.  He  was  now  apparently  in  as  good  spirits  as 
ever;  his  company  just  as  much  sought;  his  talk  just 
as  entertaining.  While  in  McLean  County  he  wrote 
this  letter,  acknowledging  the  kindness  received  from 
his  Farmington  friends: 

Bloomington,  III.,  September  27,  1841. 
Miss  Mary  Speed,  Louisville,  Ky.: 

My  Friend  : — Having  resolved  to  write  to  some  of  your 
mother's  family,  and  not  having  the  express  permission  of 
any  one  of  them  to  do  so,  I  have  had  some  little  difficulty 
in  determining  on  which  to  inflict  the  task  of  reading  what 
I  now  feel  must  be  a  most  dull  and  silly  letter ;  but  when  I 
remembered  that  you  and  I  were  something  of  cronies  while 
I  was  at  Farmington,  and  that  while  there  I  was  under  the 
necessity  of  shutting  you  up  in  a  room  to  prevent  your  com- 


MARY  TODD— VISIT  TO  KENTUCKY.     65 

mitting  an  assault  and  battery  upon  me,  I  instantly  decided 
that  you  should  be  the  devoted  one. 

I  assume  that  you  have  not  heard  from  Joshua  and  my- 
self since  we  left,  because  I  think  it  doubtful  whether  he  has 
written.  You  remember  there  was  some  uneasiness  about 
Joshua's  health  when  we  left.  That  little  indisposition  of 
his  turned  out  to  be  nothing  serious,  and  it  was  pretty  nearly 
forgotten  when  we  reached  Springfield.  We  got  on  board 
the  steamboat  Lebanon  in  the  locks  of  the  canal  about  12 
o'clock  m.  of  the  day  we  left,  and  reached  St.  Louis  the  next 
Monday  at  8  p.  m. 

Nothing  of  interest  happened  during  the  passage,  except 
the  vexatious  delays  occasioned  by  the  sandbars  be  thought 
interesting.  By  the  way,  a  fine  example  was  presented  on 
board  the  boat  for  contemplating  the  effect  of  condition  upon 
human  happiness.  A  gentleman  had  purchased  twelve  ne- 
groes in  different  parts  of  Kentucky,  and  was  taking  them 
to  a  farm  in  the  South.  They  were  chained  six  and  six 
together.  A  small  iron  clevis  was  around  the  left  wrist  of 
each,  and  this  fastened  to  the  main  chain  by  a  shorter  one, 
at  a  convenient  distance  from  the  others,  so  that  the  negroes 
were  strung  together  precisely  like  so  many  fish  upon  a  trot- 
line.  In  this  condition  they  were  being  separated  forever 
from  the  scenes  of  their  childhood,  their  friends,  their  fathers 
and  mothers,  and  brothers  and  sisters,  and  many  of  them 
from  their  wives  and  children,  and  going  into  perpetual 
slavery,  where  the  lash  of  the  master  is  proverbially  more 
ruthless  and  unrelenting  than  any  otherwhere ;  and  yet,  amid 
all  these  distressing  circumstances  as  we  would  think  them, 
they  were  the  most  cheerful  and  apparently  happy  creatures 
on  board.  One  whose  offense,  for  which  he  had  been  sold, 
was  an  over-fondness  for  his  wife,  played  the  fiddle  almost 
continually,  and  the  others  danced,  sung,  cracked  jokes,  and 
played  various  games  with  cards  from  day  to  day.  How 
true  is  it  that  "God  tempers  the  wind  to  the  shorn  lamb," 
or,  in  other  words,  that  he  renders  the  worst  of  human  con- 
ditions tolerable,  while  he  permits  the  best  to  be  nothing 
better  than  tolerable. 

To  return  to  the  narrative.  When  we  reached  Spring- 
field, I  stayed  but  one  day,  when  I  started  on  this  tedious 
circuit,  where  I  now  am.  Do  you  remember  my  going  to  the 
.5 


66       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

city,  while  I  was  in  Kentucky,  to  have  a  tooth  extracted,  and 
making  a  failure  of  it?  Well,  that  same  old  tooth  got  to 
paining  me  so  much  that  about  a  week  since  I  had  it  torn  out, 
bringing  with  it  a  bit  of  the  jawbone,  the  consequence  of 
which  is  that  my  mouth  is  now  so  sore  that  I  can  neither 
talk  nor  eat.  I  am  literally  "subsisting  on  savory  remem- 
brances"— that  is,  being  unable  to  eat,  I  am  living  upon  the 
remembrances  of  the  delicious  dishes  of  peaches  and  cream 
we  used  to  have  at  your  house. 

When  we  left,  Miss  Fanny  Henning  was  owing  you  a 
visit  as  I  understand.  Has  she  paid  it  yet  ?  If  she  has,  are 
you  not  convinced  that  she  is  one  of  the  sweetest  girls  in 
the  world?  There  is  but  one  thing  about  her,  so  far  as  I 
could  perceive,  that  I  would  have  otherwise  than  it  is  —  that 
is,  something  of  a  tendency  to  melancholy.  This,  let  it  be 
observed,  is  a  misfortune,  not  a  fault.  Give  her  an  assurance 
of  my  very  highest  regard  when  you  see  her.  Is  little  Siss 
Eliza  Davis  at  your  house  yet?  If  she  is,  kiss  her  "o'er  and 
o'er  again"  for  me. 

Tell  your  mother  that  I  have  not  got  her  "present"  with 
me,  but  I  intend  to  read  it  regularly  when  I  return  home. 
I  doubt  not  that  it  is  really,  as  she  says,  the  best  cure  for  the 
blues,  could  one  but  take  it  according  to  the  truth. 

Give  my  respects  to  all  your  sisters  (including  Aunt 
Emma)  and  brothers.  Tell  Mrs.  Peay,  of  whose  happy  face 
I  shall  long  retain  a  pleasant  remembrance,  that  I  have  been 
trying  to  think  of  a  name  for  her  homestead,  but  as  yet  can 
not  satisfy  myself  with  one.  I  shall  be  very  happy  to  receive 
a  line  from  you  soon  after  you  receive  this ;  and  in  case  you 
choose  to  favor  me  with  one,  address  it  to  Charleston,  Coles 
County,  111.,  as  I  shall  be  there  about  the  time  to  receive  it. 

Your  sincere  friend, 

A.  Lincoln. 

The  incident  of  the  chained  groups  of  slaves,  gently 
mentioned  to  one  of  a  family  in  which  slavery  in  its 
mildest  form  still  had  place,  made  a  lasting  impression 
on  his  mind.  The  young  lady,  with  no  recognized 
defect  but  a  tendency  to  melancholy,  was  the  intended 
wife  of  Mr.  Speed.     The  "present"  from  the  latter's 


INTERESTING  LAW  CASE.  67 

mother  was  an  Oxford  Bible,  of  which  he  made  a  fresh 
acknowledgment  from  the  White  House. 

Lincoln's  partnership  with  Major  Stuart  had  been 
dissolved,  and  a  new  one  with  Judge  Stephen  T.  Logan 
had  begun  on  the  14th  of  April,  1841.  About  this  date 
they  were  employed  in  a  criminal  case  quite  famous  in 
its  day — one  which,  with  various  traditional  increments 
and  distortions,  has  served  to  emphasize  the  uncertain- 
ties of  circumstantial  evidence.  This  is  the  legend  as 
ultimately  shaped  in  the  newspaper  press: 

"  In  1840,  when  the  State  House  at  Springfield,  Illi- 
nois, was  being  built,  one  of  the  stone-cutters  engaged 
was  a  man  named  Martin,  from  New  York  City.  He 
was  not  a  man  of  sound  mind;  at  least,  he  was  a  maniac 
on  one  subject,  which  was  that  there  was  no  good 
money  except  that  of  the  old  Metropolitan  Bank  of 
New  York.  Every  Saturday  night,  when  the  men 
were  paid  off,  he  used  to  go  around  among  them  and 
buy  up  this  money,  often  paying  as  high  as  ten  per 
cent,  premium  for  it.  He  was  known  to  have  a  con- 
siderable sum  of  this  money  hid  away  or  about  him. 
In  May  of  the  year  named  he  and  one  Smith  hired  a 
wagon  to  go  to  the  Sangamon  River,  four  miles  dis- 
tant. At  night  Smith  returned,  but  not  with  Martin. 
When  asked  where  Martin  was,  he  said  he  did  not 
know.  Martin  was  soon  missed;  the  ground  where 
they  went  was  searched,  and  the  plainest  evidence  was 
presented  that  they  had  quarreled.  The  ground  was 
trampled  on  the  river  bank,  and  some  of  Martin's 
clothes  were  found.  It  was  discovered  that  some  drops 
of  blood  were  dried  on  the  sand,  and  that  the  buggy 
had  been  drawn  into  the  water.     The  supposition  was 


68        LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

that  Martin  had  been  murdered  and  his  body  carried 
into  the  river.  Search  was  made  for  days,  but  no  body 
could  be  found.  Meantime  Smith,  the  assumed  mur- 
derer, was  arrested  and  put  in  the  old  log  jail.  In  a 
few  weeks  the  prisoner  was  regularly  arraigned  in  the 
Circuit  Court  on  the  charge  of  murder.  Abraham  Lin- 
coln, then  rising  into  fame  as  a  lawyer,  was  engaged  for 
the  defense.  The  production  of  the  corpus  mortuum  was 
not  insisted  upon;  the  evidence  seemed  as  clear  and  con- 
clusive as  though  a  dozen  persons  had  seen  the  act  of 
murder.  The  witnesses  were  few,  yet  what  evidence 
there  was  pointed  to  the  crime  and  the  means  by  which 
it  was  done.  The  marks  of  the  struggle,  the  clothes 
found  there,  the  drops  of  blood  on  the  sand,  the  driving 
of  the  buggy  to  the  river,  as  if  to  throw  the  lifeless  body 
into  the  swift  current,  were  all  circumstances  that  could 
only  be  accounted  for  in  connection  with  the  '  deep 
damnation  of  the  taking  off '  of  poor  Martin.  The 
defense  could  hardly  make  a  show  of  evidence,  and  a 
verdict  of  guilty  seemed  a  foregone  conclusion.  Mean- 
while the  sheriff  of  Tazewell  County  had  read  in  the 
Sangamon  Journal  a  description  of  Martin's  person,  and 
had  heard  that  a  man  had  appeared  in  a  distant  part  of 
the  county,  without  coat  or  hat,  and  who  could  give  no 
intelligent  account  of  himself.  An  inspiration  prompted 
the  sheriff  to  go  and  see  him,  and  he  became  satisfied 
that  he  was  the  missing  man.  His  having  in  his  posses- 
sion still  a  considerable  amount  of  Metropolitan  Bank 
money  made  the  sheriff  morally  sure  on  the  point;  so 
he  took  the  man  in  charge  and  started  with  him  for 
Springfield.     Arriving  on  the  last  day  of  the  judicial 


INTERESTING  LAW  CASE.  69 

investigation,  he  lodged  the  man  in  jail  and  went  into 
the  court  room  and  saw  Mr.  Lincoln.  Then  Mr.  Lin- 
coln asked  a  suspension  of  proceedings,  as  he  had  an 
important  witness  to  introduce.  With  the  sheriff  he 
went  to  the  old  jail,  saw  the  prisoner,  and  was  satisfied 
that  the  dead  was  alive.  Returning  to  court,  Mr.  Lin- 
coln said  that  he  could  not  look  for  anything  but  a  ver- 
dict against  his  client  as  the  case  stood,  but  he  asked 
permission  to  introduce  a  new  and  very  material  wit- 
ness. Martin  himself  was  placed  on  the  stand,  and  in 
a  moment  the  case  fell  to  the  ground." 

Changing  the  date  to  the  year  1841,  and  the  ficti- 
tious names  of  Smith  and  Martin  to  the  real  ones  — 
three  brothers  Trailor  as  the  accused,  and  Archibald 
Fisher  as  their  alleged  victim  —  the  story  is  true  in  its 
main  effect.  This  professional  incident  has  a  value 
besides  its  intrinsic  interest,  as  helping  us  to  form  a 
just  estimate  of  certain  statements  concerning  Lincoln's 
whereabouts  and  the  state  of  his  mind  during  the  first 
half  of  this  year.  He  wrote  a  clear  account  of  this  case 
in  a  letter  to  his  friend  Speed,  (dated  June  19,  1841,) 
having  evidently  given  the  affair  close  attention  from 
beginning  to  end.*  He  had  not  yet  gone  to  Kentucky, 
but  mentions  in  this  letter  his  intention  of  doing  so,  as 
he  did  apparently  in  the  latter  part  of  June.  Hence  he 
was  not  "  there  during  most  of  the  summer  and  fall," 
as  has  been  stated,  for  he  was  back  again  on  the  court 
circuit,  as  his  letter  to  Mary  Speed  shows,  before  the 
close   of   September.      Again,   an   examination    of   the 


*"  Complete  Works  "  (N.  &  H.),  L,  48-51. 


yo         LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

House  journal  is  sufficient  to  disprove  the  assertion  of 
some  biographers,  that  Lincoln,  on  account  of  great 
mental  depression,  was  seldom  in  his  seat  during  this 
winter's  session  of  the  Legislature.  He  was  evidently; 
as  regularly  present  then  as  at  any  other  session,  or  as 
any  other  member.  The  terrible  reality  of  his  melan- 
choly, however,  may  be  judged  from  his  own  words  in 
a  letter  to  Major  Stuart,  at  Washington  (January  23, 
1841):  "  I  am  now  the  most  miserable  man  living.  If 
what  I  feel  were  equally  distributed  to  the  whole  human 
family,  there  would  not  be  one  cheerful  face  on  the 
earth.  Whether  I  shall  ever  be  better,  I  cannot  tell; 
I  awfully  forebode  I  shall  not.  To  remain  as  I  am  is 
impossible;  I  must  die  or  be  better,  it  appears  to  me." 


CHAPTER  VI. 

1 842- 1 846. 

Temperance  Address  —  Personal  Difficulty  with  James 
Shields  —  Marriage  to  Mary  Todd  —  Defeated  Candi- 
date for  Congressional  Nomination  in  1843  —  An  Even- 
ing with  Van  Buren  —  Polk  Defeats  Clay  —  Annexation 
of  Texas  —  War  with  Mexico  Begun  —  Lincoln  Elected 
to  Congress. 

Early  in  1842  Mr.  Speed  returned  to  his  native  State, 
married,  and  thenceforward  resided  on  a  country  place 
near  Louisville,  which  was  again  his  place  of  business. 
The  former  chums  wrote  to  each  other  freely  of  their 
personal  affairs  for  a  year  or  two,  but  the  correspond- 
ence was  interrupted  by  long  intervals  after  1843.  Dur- 
ing the  winter  (1 841-2)  Lincoln  was  quite  free  from 
"  hypo  "  or  "  nervous  debility,"  both  of  which  terms  he 
used  to  describe  his  ailment. 

On  the  22d  of  February  he  delivered  an  address  at 
Springfield  in  aid  of  the  "  Washingtonian "  temper- 
ance movement,  then  lately  inaugurated  with  the  spe- 
cial object  of  reforming  inebriates.  He  treated  the  sub- 
ject in  a  manner  peculiarly  his  own  —  with  humanity, 
charity,  and  moderation.  "  When  the  dram-seller  and 
drinker  [he  said]  were  incessantly  told,  not  in  accents 
of  entreaty  and  persuasion,  diffidently  addressed  by 
erring  men  to  an  erring  brother,  but  in  the  thunder 

(71) 


72        LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

tones  of  anathema  and  denunciation,  .  .  .  that  they 
were  the  authors  of  all  the  vice  and  misery  in  the  land, 
...  it  is  not  wonderful  that  they  were  slow,  very 
slow,  to  acknowledge  the  truth  of  such  denunciations 
and  to  join  the  ranks  of  their  denouncers  in  a  hue  and 
cry  against  themselves.  To  have  expected  them  to  do 
otherwise  than  they  did  .  .  .  was  to  expect  a  rever- 
sal of  human  nature,  which  is  God's  decree,  and  can 
never  be  reversed.  .  .  .  When  all  such  of  us  as  have 
now  reached  the  years  of  maturity  first  opened  our 
eyes  upon  this  stage  of  existence,  we  found  intoxi- 
cating liquor  recognized  by  everybody,  used  by  every- 
body, repudiated  by  nobody.  It  commonly  entered 
into  the  first  draught  of  the  infant  and  the  last  draught 
of  the  dying  man.  From  the  sideboard  of  the  parson 
down  to  the  ragged  pocket  of  the  homeless  loafer,  it 
was  constantly  found.  Physicians  prescribed  it  in  this, 
that,  and  the  other  disease;  government  provided  it  for 
soldiers  and  sailors;  and  to  have  a  rolling  or  raising,  a 
husking  or  '  hoe-down  '  anywhere  about  without  it  was 
positively  insufferable.  So,  too,  it  was  everywhere  a 
respectable  article  of  manufacture  and  of  merchandise. 
.  .  .  The  universal  sense  of  mankind  on  any  subject 
is  an  argument,  or  at  least  an  influence,  not  easily  over- 
come. The  success  of  the  argument  in  favor  of  the 
existence  of  an  overruling  Providence  mainly  depends 
upon  that  sense;  and  men  ought  not,  in  justice,  to  be 
denounced  for  yielding  to  it  in  any  case,  or  giving  it 
up  slowly,  especially  when  they  are  backed  by  interest, 
fixed  habits,  or  burning  appetites.  .  .  .  Whether  or 
not  the  world  would  be  vastly  benefited  by  a  total  ban- 
ishment from  it  of  all  intoxicating  drinks  seems  to  me 


MARRIAGE— ELECTION  TO  CONGRESS.    73 

not  now  an  open  question.  Three-fourths  of  mankind 
confess  the  affirmative  with  their  tongues,  and  I  believe 
all  the  rest  acknowledge  it  in  their  hearts." 

Lincoln's  former  relations  with  Mary  Todd,  inter- 
rupted as  we  have  seen,  had  not  been  at  once  renewed 
on  his  return  from  visiting  the  Speeds  in  Kentucky, 
yet  the  interruption  was  not  to  be  permanent,  as  was 
apparent  the  following  summer.  Many  an  "  affair  of 
honor  "  has  been  somehow  evolved  from  a  like  relation- 
ship; and  such  a  trouble,  though  not  after  the  usual 
course,  happened  in  the  present  case.  Happily,  it  was 
anything  but  serious  in  its  outcome;  and  the  same  may 
be  said  of  its  immediate  origin.  Lincoln's  adversary 
was  a  man  afterward  distinguished  on  the  battlefield; 
a  man  of  real  courage  as  well  as  of  considerable  bluster, 
who  was  ere  long  to  have  a  seat  in  the  United  States 
Senate.  Particulars,  tediously  full  and  dull,  may  be 
found  in  newspaper  files  of  the  time.  James  Shields, 
born  in  Ireland,  and  now  a  gallant  bachelor  past  thirty, 
was  a  member  of  the  Illinois  Legislature  during  Lin- 
coln's second  term,  and  later  as  State  Auditor  became  a 
resident  of  Springfield.  Certain  contributions  to  the 
Sangamon  Journal  —  a  letter  written  by  Lincoln,  some- 
what in  the  "  Jack  Downing  "  manner;  another,  over 
the  same  signature,  said  to  have  been  concocted  by 
Mary  Todd  and  her  friend,  Miss  Jayne  (soon  to  be 
Mrs.  Lyman  Trumbull),  and,  most  exasperating  of  all, 
some  "  lines  "  by  Miss  Todd  —  gave  great  offense  to 
the  Auditor.  The  editor,  having  been  called  upon  by 
Shields'  "  friend/'  General  Whiteside,  turned  over  the 
responsibility  to  Lincoln,  to  whom  Shields  wrote,  de- 
manding "  a  full,  positive,  and  absolute  retraction  of 


74       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

all  offensive  allusions  used  "  in  said  communications, 
and  "  an  apology  for  the  insults  conveyed  in  them  "  — 
adding  in  conclusion:  "  This  may  prevent  consequences 
which  no  one  will  regret  more  than  myself." 

Lincoln,  who  was  at  this  time  attending  court  in 
Tazewell  County,  more  than  fifty  miles  from  Spring- 
field —  Shields  having  gone  to  Fremont  on  this  per- 
sonal errand  —  replied  (Fremont,  September  17,  1842): 
"  Your  note  of  to-day  was  handed  me  by  General  White- 
side. In  that  note  you  say  you  have  been  informed, 
through  the  medium  of  the  editor  of  the  Journal,  that 
I  am  the  author  of  certain  articles  in  that  paper  which 
you  deem  personally  abusive  of  you;  and,  without  stop- 
ping to  inquire  whether  I  am  really  the  author,  or  to 
point  out  what  is  offensive  in  them,  you  demand  an 
unqualified  retraction  of  all  that  is  offensive,  and  then 
proceed  to  hint  at  consequences.  Now,  sir,  there  is  in 
this  so  much  assumption  of  facts,  and  so  much  menace 
as  to  consequences,  that  I  can  not  submit  to  answer 
that  note  any  further  than  I  have,  and  to  add,  that  the 
consequence  to  which  I  suppose  you  allude  would  be 
matter  of  as  great  regret  to  me  as  it  possibly  could 
to  you.,, 

Shields  had  not  come  so  far,  by  such  conveyance 
and  thoroughfares  as  the  country  then  afforded,  with- 
out being  very  much  in  earnest.  His  letter  was  in 
terms  that  left  no  door  ajar  for  explanation  or  dis- 
avowal, much  less  for  retraction  on  the  part  of  such  a 
man  as  he  had  to  deal  with  —  a  Kentuckian  by  birth, 
with  associations  largely  of  that  type.  Learning  that 
Shields  and  Whiteside  had  started  for  Tazewell  County, 
two  friends  of  Lincoln — Dr.  Merriman  and  Mr.  Butler — 


MARRIAGE— ELECTION  TO  CONGRESS.    75 

set  out  for  the  same  goal,  and  were  promptly  at  hand. 
Attempts  at  mediation  having  failed,  all  returned  to 
Springfield,  and  a  "  meeting  "  was  fixed  for  the  226. 
of  the  month,  in  Missouri,  within  three  miles  of  Alton. 
Lincoln  gave  Dr.  Merriman  the  following  written  state- 
ment, to  be  read  if  Shields  should  first  withdraw  his 
notes:  "  I  did  write  the  '  Lost  Township  '  letter,  which 
appeared  in  the  Journal  of  the  26.  inst.,  but  had  no  par- 
ticipation in  any  form  in  any  other  article  alluding  to 
you.  I  wrote  that  wholly  for  political  effect.  I  had 
no  intention  of  injuring  your  personal  or  private  char- 
acter or  standing  as  a  man  or  a  gentleman;  and  I  did 
not  then  think,  and  do  not  now  think,  that  that  article 
could  produce,  or  has  produced,  that  effect  against  you; 
and  had  I  anticipated  such  an  effect,  would  have  for- 
borne to  write  it.  And  I  will  add  that  your  conduct 
towards  me,  so  far  as  I  knew,  had  always  been  gen- 
tlemanly, and  that  I  had  no  personal  pique  against 
you,  and  no  cause  for  any."  If  no  acommodation  was 
effected,  he  chose  for  weapons  "  cavalry  broadswords  of 
the  largest  size,  precisely  equal  in  all  respects,  and  such 
as  now  used  by  the  cavalry  company  at  Jacksonville. " 
After  the  prospective  combatants  had  crossed  into 
Missouri,  other  friends  of  both  —  among  whom  were 
John  J.  Hardin  and  W.  L.  D.  Ewing  —  succeeded  in 
bringing  about  a  pacific  adjustment.  At  this  day  the 
whole  affair  looks  very  much  like  an  intended  travesty 
of  the  code  of  honor  in  its  modern  development,  or  as 
a  piece  of  waggery  which  might  afford  to  the  two  mis- 
chievous young  ladies,  as  well  as  to  the  humor-loving 
Lincoln,  as  much  real  enjoyment  as  they  had  found  in 
the  offending  articles. 


y6       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

Abraham  Lincoln  was  married  to  Mary  Todd  on 
Friday,  November  4th,  by  Rev.  Charles  Dresser,  D.D., 
rector  of  the  Episcopal  Church  in  Springfield.  There 
was  a  large  wedding  party  on  the  occasion  at  the  resi- 
dence of  Mr.  Ninian  W.  Edwards,  the  home  of  the  bride. 
There  has  been  some  waste  of  words  concerning  the 
amount  of  romantic  sentiment  on  either  side.  It  may 
be  readily  granted  that  this  union  was  not  based  on 
such  a  passion  as  we  read  of,  for  example,  in  Disraeli's 
Henrietta  Temple.  It  is  clear  that  there  was  an  affinity 
in  their  ambitions;  that  mutual  appreciation  came  with 
acquaintance;  and  that  a  more  tender  relation  very 
naturally  followed. 

At  first  the  wedded  pair  were  boarders  at  the  Globe 
tavern.  A  year  or  two  later  Lincoln  bought  of  the 
Episcopal  rector  a  plain  frame  house  of  one  story,  to 
which  a  second  was  added  after  a  time,  completing  the 
exterior  since  made  familiar  to  the  world  in  picture. 
This  continued  to  be  their  home  thenceforward.  Its 
next  owner  was  the  State  of  Illinois,  in  whose  cus- 
tody it  remains  as  a  precious  memorial.  Hon.  Isaac 
N.  Arnold,  of  Chicago,  who  was  there  as  a  guest  at 
times  during  many  years,  and  was  better  qualified  to 
speak  of  their  domestic  life  than  some  persons  wTho  have 
written  about  it  more  copiously  in  a  less  amiable  spirit, 
said,  in  noticing  the  marriage:  "  With  her  he  lived  most 
happily  until"  the  final  separation.*  Again,  at  a  ban- 
quet of  the  Illinois  Bar  Association  in  1881,  speaking 
of  old-time  hospitalities  at  Springfield:  "Among  others 
I  recall,  with  a  sad  pleasure,  the  dinners  given  by  Mrs. 


*"  Lincoln  and  Slavery,"  p.  79. 


MARRIAGE— ELECTION  TO  CONGRESS.    77 

Lincoln.  In  her  modest  and  simple  home,  where  every- 
thing was  so  orderly  and  refined,  there  was  always  on 
the  part  of  both  host  and  hostess  a  cordial  and  hearty 
Western  welcome,  which  put  every  guest  perfectly  at 
ease.  Their  table  was  famed  for  the  excellence  of  many 
rare  Kentucky  dishes,  and  for  the  venison,  wild  turkeys, 
and  other  game,  then  so  abundant.  Yet  it  was  her 
genial  manner  and  ever-kind  welcome,  and  Mr.  Lin- 
coln's wit  and  humor,  anecdote  and  unrivaled  conver- 
sation, which  formed  the  chief  attraction." 

Lincoln  had  declined  to  be  a  candidate  for  re-elec- 
tion to  the  Legislature  in  1842.  One  substantial  reason 
is  easy  to  find.  Representatives  in  Congress  were  to  be 
chosen  the  next  year  in  Illinois,  under  a  law  that  was 
changed  at  the  following  session  of  the  Legislature  so 
as  to  require  their  election,  as  at  present,  the  year  before 
they  were  to  take  their  seats.  It  thus  happened  that 
there  was  a  Congressional  election  in  that  State  in  1843 
and  again  in  1844.  Major  Stuart  was  not  a  candidate 
for  another  term.  The  way  was  thus  opened  for  Lin- 
coln, and  it  would  seem  that  his  nomination  was  fairly 
to  be  expected.  The  Sangamon  district  convention 
was  called  to  meet  in  May  (1843).  His  own  county 
had  a  larger  number  of  delegates  than  any  other,  and 
he  had  certainly  well  earned  its  support.  But  there  was 
another  Springfield  aspirant,  Edward  D.  Baker;  and 
when  the  county  convention  met  to  choose  delegates, 
Baker,  who  had  a  more  captivating  oratory,  and  whose 
supporters  were  active  and  artful,  was  found  to  be  in 
the  lead. 

Writing  soon  after  the  event  to  a  friend  in  Menard 


78       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

County  —  his  earlier  home,  which  had  remained  faith- 
ful to  him  —  Lincoln  said  he  was  "  put  down  "  in  San- 
gamon "  as  the  candidate  of  pride,  wealth,  and  aris- 
tocratic family  distinction  "  (which  he  thought  would 
astonish  his  old  friends  in  Menard);  and  that  "there 
was,  too,  the  strangest  combination  of  church  influ- 
ence" against  him:  " Baker  is  a  Campbellite;  and  there- 
fore, as  I  suppose,  with  few  exceptions,  got  all  of  that 
church.  My  wife  has  some  relations  in  the  Presbyte- 
rian churches,  and  some  in  the  Episcopal  churches;  and 
therefore,  wherever  it  would  tell,  I  was  set  down  as 
either  the  one  or  the  other,  while  it  was  everywhere 
contended  that  no  Christian  ought  to  go  for  me,  be- 
cause I  belonged  to  no  church,  was  suspected  of  being 
a  deist,  and  had  talked  about  fighting  a  duel.  With  all 
these  things  Baker,  of  course,  had  nothing  to  do,  nor 
do  I  complain  of  them." 

The  marriage — the  churches — the  ridiculous  "duel"! 
Undoubtedly  the  defeat  was  a  sore  disappointment. 

After  all,  it  was  another  candidate  who  got  the 
nomination, —  John  J.  Hardin,  of  Morgan  County, — 
and  in  August  he  was  elected. 

Since  1840  Lincoln  had  given  less  attention  to  poli- 
tics than  to  law  practice.  His  partnership  with  Judge 
Logan — who  also  had  Congressional  aspirations — was 
comparatively  brief,  ending  in  1843.  A  new  one  was 
formed  with  a  younger  man,  whom  he  had  known  as 
a  clerk  in  Mr.  Speed's  store,  and  who  had  now  been 
recently  admitted  to  the  bar,  Mr.  William  H.  Herndon, 
who  was  especially  serviceable  in  regard  to  office  work, 
the  senior  assuming  the  chief  labors  of  the  court  room. 
Members  of  Congress,  as  we  have  explained,  were  to 


MARRIAGE— ELECTION  TO  CONGRESS.    79 

be  elected  in  1844,  but  Lincoln  was  not  now  a  candi- 
date for  the  nomination.  He  gave  way  to  his  friend, 
Edward  D.  Baker,  as  did  also  Colonel  Hardin.  On 
the  breaking  out  of  the  Mexican  War,  Hardin  took 
the  command  of  a  regiment  of  volunteers.  He  was 
killed  at  the  battle  of  Buena  Vista.  Baker  was  given 
a  like  command,  before  the  close  of  the  term  for  which 
he  was  elected.  On  returning  from  the  war  he  changed 
his  residence,  and  was  sent  to  Congress  from  the  Galena 
district. 

Clay  had  a  clear  field  this  year  for  the  Presidential 
nomination.  The  friends  of  ex-President  Van  Buren 
had  been  hoping  for  a  like  unanimity  in  his  favor  on  the 
Democratic  side.  He  made  a  tour  through  the  West 
in  1843,  °f  which  Mr.  Speed  recalled  an  incident  not 
out  of  place  here:  "  In  1843,  when  Mr.  Van  Buren  and 
Commodore  Paulding  visited  the  West,  and  gave  out 
that  they  would  reach  Springfield  on  a  certain  day,  but 
their  friends  knew  from  the  condition  of  the  roads  that 
their  expectations  would  not  be  realized,  a  party  was 
formed,  and  Lincoln,  though  not  of  their  politics,  was 
pressed  into  the  service.  They  met  Van  Buren  and  his 
party  at  Rochester,  in  Sangamon  County,  in  an  old 
barn  of  a  hotel.  Lincoln  was  charged  to  do  his  best  to 
entertain  the  distinguished  guests.  Well  did  he  do  his 
part.  Lincoln  soon  got  under  way,  and  kept  the  com- 
pany convulsed  with  laughter  till  the  small  hours  of  the 
night.  Mr.  Van  Buren  stayed  some  days  in  Spring- 
field, and  repeatedly  said  he  never  spent  so  agreeable 
a  night  in  his  life.  He  complained  that  his  sides  were 
sore  with  laughter,  and  to  more  than  one  predicted  for 
that  young  man  a  bright  and  brilliant  future," 


80       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

A  few  months  before  the  Democratic  National  Con- 
vention met,  a  new  issue  had  come  into  prominence. 
The  annexation  of  Texas  was  thrust  forward  by  the 
Tyler-Calhoun  Administration  in  a  manner  to  disturb 
political  calculations  as  to  the  next  Presidential  can- 
vass. No  such  device  ever  had  more  complete  suc- 
cess. Deeper  purposes  and  larger  consequences  were 
also  involved.  "  One  of  the  foremost,"  says  Benton, 
"  to  give  away  Texas,  Mr.  Calhoun  was  the  very  fore- 
most to  get  her  back;  and  at  an  immense  cost  to  our 
foreign  relations  and  domestic  peace.  The  immediate 
admission  of  Texas  into  the  Union  was  his  plan.  She 
was  at  war  with  Mexico  —  we  at  peace;  to  incorporate 
her  into  the  Union  was  to  adopt  her  war."  Formal 
application  for  the  admission  of  Texas  was  made  in 
1838,  but  her  war  with  Mexico  still  continued,  and  this 
war  was  more  than  even  the  South  in  general  then  cared 
to  adopt.  Subsequent  attempts  fared  likewise,  but  the 
case  was  not  suffered  to  drop.  Some  months  before  the 
Presidential  nominations  were  to  be  made,  in  1844,  a 
letter  adverse  to  annexation  had  been  drawn  from  Van 
Buren;  and  Clay  had  been  catechised  with  like  result. 
Both  seemed  so  certain  to  be  the  opposing  candidates, 
was  it  not  safe  for  both  to  speak  out  in  this  way  and  be 
rid  of  a  troublesome  issue?  If  there  was  an  agreement 
between  them  to  such  effect,  never  were  two  great  men 
worse  deceived.  Van  Buren's  pledged  majority  con- 
sented to  the  rule  requiring  two-thirds  to  nominate; 
James  K.  Polk,  of  Tennessee,  chosen  in  his  stead,  was 
elected  over  Clay;  and  annexation  was  an  accomplished 
fact  before  Polk's  inauguration. 

Lincoln,   as  he  had   done  four  years  before,   can- 


MARRIAGE— ELECTION  TO  CONGRESS.    81 

vassed  the  State  as  one  of  the  electoral  candidates. 
He  entered  into  the  work  with  an  earnest  and  hopeful 
spirit.  After  closing  his  work  in  Illinois,  he  made  a 
brief  stumping  tour  in  Indiana.  For  the  first  time  since 
he  left  the  State  in  1830,  he  visited  Gentry ville,  and  had 
an  enthusiastic  welcome  from  people  of  both  parties. 
Still  more  to  the  purpose  —  if  it  be  true,  as  told  —  a 
good  number  of  those  who  came  to  hear  him  as  Demo- 
crats went  away  to  vote  for  Clay,  and  to  remain  Lin- 
coln's political  as  well  as  personal  friends  ever  after. 

Illinois  remained  so  decidedly  Democratic  that  any 
material  change  in  a  lifetime  might  well  seem  hopeless. 
Douglas  was  elected  to  Congress  for  a  second  term,  and 
had  not  long  to  wait  for  a  seat  in  the  Senate.  A  skillful 
politician  as  well  as  a  popular  orator,  he  took  control  of 
the  Democratic  organization  in  the  State  with  a  strong 
hand,  and  exercised  the  leadership  with  shrewdness 
and  energy,  like  Van  Buren  in  New  York  —  managing 
always  to  make  party  success  subservient  to  his  own 
advancement. 

President  Polk  found  the  situation  regarding  Texas 
and  Mexico  all  he  could  have  wished  when  he  took  the 
reins.  General  Zachary  Taylor  had  been  ordered  to 
Texas  with  a  small  force  of  regulars;  and  in  November 
(1845)  ne  occupied  Corpus  Christi,  beyond  the  river 
Nueces,  and  near  its  mouth.  Maintaining  communica- 
tions by  the  Gulf,  he  was  to  proceed  to  the  Rio  Grande, 
occupying  positions  near  the  coast,  and  opposite  Mata- 
moras,  where  a  Mexican  force  largely  superior  to  his 
own  was  soon  gathered.  After  vainly  warning  off 
Taylor,  the  Mexicans  crossed  the  river  and  attacked 
him,  suffering  a  serious  repulse  at  Palo  Alto  and  again 
6 


82       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

at  Resaca  de  le  Palma,  on  the  8th  and  9th  of  May 
(1846).  President  Polk  issued  a  proclamation  declar- 
ing that  war  had  been  begun  by  Mexico,  and  calling 
for  fifty  thousand  volunteers. 

Elections  for  the  next  Congress  were  to  occur  this 
summer  and  autumn.  General  Taylor,  fast  becoming 
a  popular  idol,  was  meanwhile  advancing  on  the  far- 
ther side  of  the  Rio  Grande  to  Camargo,  and  thence  up 
the  valley  of  the  San  Juan  to  Monterey,  which  place  he 
took  by  storm,  against  great  odds,  in  October. 

Lincoln  had  no  great  difficulty,  this  time,  in  securing 
the  Congressional  nomination  in  his  district.  As  the 
election  took  place  early  in  August,  the  victorious  army 
in  Mexico  was  only  in  the  first  stages  of  its  career  when 
the  canvass  closed.  Few  people  in  Illinois  were  making 
any  great  outcry  against  the  war,  or  showed  much  con- 
cern over  the  possible  acquisition  of  more  territory  into 
which  the  cotton-belt  empire  could  expand. 

As  Lincoln's  competitor,  the  Democrats  nomi- 
nated the  Rev.  Peter  Cartwright,  a  popular  Methodist 
preacher  and  presiding  elder,  who  had  removed  from 
Kentucky  to  Illinois  some  years  after  his  marriage,  for 
the  reason  (as  we  have  seen)  that  he  did  not  wish  to 
raise  his  children  in  a  slave  State.  The  canvass  was 
made  on  the  old  political  lines.  As  to  slavery,  Cart- 
wright  could  hardly  claim  greater  conservatism  than 
Lincoln,  unless  by  virtue  of  his  connection  with  the 
Democratic  party.  The  preacher  had  many  warm 
friends,  and  would  naturally  find  some  favor  in  his  own 
denomination  among  its  Whig  members.  There  were 
even  attempts  to  gain  votes  for  the  Gospel  minister  by 
contrasting  his  orthodoxy  with  the  undefined  faith  of 


MARRIAGE— ELECTION  TO  CONGRESS.    83 

his  opponent.  Nevertheless,  comparing  the  votes  for 
member  of  Congress  with  the  votes  for  Governor,  Lin- 
coln received  four  hundred  more,  and  Cartwright  over 
seven  hundred  less,  than  the  head  of  their  respective 
party  tickets.  Lincoln's  plurality  over  Cartwright  was 
1,511,  more  than  one  thousand  greater  than  the  plurality 
in  the  district  for  the  Whig  candidate  for  Governor. 


CHAPTER  VII. 
1 847- 1 848. 

In  Congress  —  Mexican  War  Ending  —  Lincoln's  Maiden 
Speech  —  His  Second  Speech  —  Senator  Lewis  Cass,  the 
Democratic  Nominee  for  President  —  Lincoln  Favors  the 
Nomination  of  General  Taylor  —  The  Illinois  Delegates 
to  the  Whig  National  Convention  Unanimous  for  Clay  — 
Taylor's  Nomination  —  "Free  Soil "  Party  Nominate 
Van  Bur  en  and  Adams. 

The  Mexican  War  was  nearly  over  when  Lincoln 
(in  December,  1847)  took  his  seat  in  Congress.  In 
the  preceding  February  General  Taylor  had  won  a  bril- 
liant victory  at  Buena  Vista.  General  Scott  had  taken 
the  field  with  a  separate  force,  moving  from  Vera  Cruz; 
defeating  the  enemy  at  Cerro  Gordo  in  April,  and  ad- 
vancing with  repeated  engagements  until,  after  storm- 
ing Molino  del  Rey  on  the  8th  of  September,  he  entered 
the  city  of  Mexico,  where  as  a  conqueror  he  remained 
many  months,  awaiting  the  settlement  of  terms  of  peace. 

The  Thirtieth  Congress  was  an  especially  memorable 
one.  The  administration  of  President  Polk,  even  under 
the  pressure  of  a  foreign  war,  had  failed  to  retain  its  par- 
tisan strength  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  which 
chose  the  Hon.  Robert  C.  Winthrop,  of  Massachusetts, 
the  Whig  nominee,  for  Speaker.     In  both  houses  there 


(84) 


IN  CONGRESS  — FIRST  SESSION.         85 

were  venerable  statesmen  who  had  personally  known 
some  of  "the  Fathers"  who  organized  the  Government, 
and  whose  names  have  scarcely  less  luster  than  theirs. 
These  honored  seniors  had  given  character  to  the  politi- 
cal era  which,  though  perhaps  unconsciously  to  them 
all,  was  now  about  to  close.  Of  the  new  epoch,  fore- 
shadowed in  other  and  more  striking  ways,  we  may  find 
one  suggestion  in  the  nature  of  the  journey  across  the 
Alleghanies  now  made  by  Lincoln  for  the  first  time, 
as  compared  with  the  slow  coaching  of  Henry  Clay, 
Andrew  Jackson,  Thomas  H.  Benton,  and  their  West- 
ern colleagues,  for  almost  a  lifetime,  in  their  progress  to 
the  national  capital.  The  eminently  respectable  Whigs 
and  Democrats  of  the  older  States  still  looked  a  little 
downward  or  askance,  however  complacently,  upon  the 
people's  representatives  who  came  thus  tediously  from 
afar,  save  upon  a  few,  of  the  slaveholding  class  more 
especially,  who  were  distinguished  not  only  by  rare 
abilities,  but  also  by  long  experience. 

Among  members  of  the  House  on  the  Whig  side 
was  the  venerable  ex-President  John  Quincy  Adams, 
who  died  in  the  very  capitol  during  the  first  session. 
There  were  also  Messrs.  J.  R.  Ingersoll,  of  Pennsyl- 
vania; J.  M.  Botts,  of  Virginia;  Robert  Toombs,  A.  H. 
Stephens,  and  Thomas  Butler  King,  of  Georgia;  Wash- 
ington Hunt,  of  New  York;  Jacob  Collamer  and  George 
P.  Marsh,  of  Vermont;  Truman  Smith,  of  Connecticut; 
Henry  W.  Hilliard,  of  Alabama;  Samuel  F.  Vinton  and 
Robert  C.  Schenck,  of  Ohio;  Caleb  B.  Smith  and  Rich- 
ard W.  Thompson,  of  Indiana,  and  Meredith  P.  Gentry, 
of  Tennessee.     On  the  Democratic  side  were  R.   M. 


86       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

McLane,  of  Maryland;  James  McDowell  and  R.  K. 
Meade,  of  Virginia;  R.  B.  Rhett,  of  South  Carolina; 
Howell  Cobb,  of  Georgia;  Jacob  Thompson,  of  Missis- 
sippi; Linn  Boyd,  of  Kentucky;  Andrew  Johnson,  of 
Tennessee,  and  James  S.  Greene  and  John  S.  Phelps,  of 
Missouri.  Douglas  had  been  re-elected  to  the  House 
in  1846;  but  at  the  succeeding  session  of  the  Legisla- 
ture he  had  been  transferred  to  the  Senate,  and  William 
A.  Richardson  had  been  elected  as  Representative  in 
his  stead.  Thus  it  happened  that  the  first  appearance 
of  Douglas  as  Senator  was  simultaneous  with  that  of 
Lincoln  as  member  of  the  House.  Among  the  Sena- 
tors were  Daniel  Webster,  John  C.  Calhoun,  John  M. 
Clayton,  Thomas  Corwin,  Thomas  H.  Benton,  John 
Bell,  Daniel  S.  Dickinson,  Samuel  S.  Phelps,  Simon 
Cameron,  Hannibal  Hamlin,  Reverdy  Johnson,  Sam 
Houston,  William  R.  King,  R.  M.  T.  Hunter,  and 
Jefferson  Davis. 

Lincoln's  maiden  speech  related  to  the  President's 
responsibility  for  the  beginning  of  the  Mexican  War. 
On  the  nth  of  the  preceding  February,  weeks  before 
news  came  of  Taylor's  victory  at  Buena  Vista,  Thomas 
Corwin  delivered  his  famous  speech  in  the  Senate,  not 
only  against  the  action  of  President  Polk  in  the  incep- 
tion of  the  war,  but  against  any  appropriation  in  its 
support.  In  this  extreme  position  Corwin  was  not 
generally  sustained  by  his  Whig  colleagues,  and  the 
appropriations  passed  without  much  opposition.  Pres- 
ident Polk's  annual  message  had  elaborately  defended 
his  action  in  ordering  Taylor  to  the  Rio  Grande.  Mr. 
Richardson,  of  Illinois,  gathering  about  him  the  mantle 
consigned  by  Douglas  on  ascending  higher,  was  prompt 


IN  CONGRESS  —  FIRST  SESSION.         87 

in  moving  an  indorsement  of  the  President.  The  gaunt- 
let was  thrown  down  before  all  who  could  not  applaud 
the  whole  proceedings  from  the  annexation  of  Texas 
onward.  Such,  in  brief,  was  the  condition  of  this  matter 
when,  on  the  12th  of  January,  1848,  Lincoln  obtained 
the  floor.  His  prepared  speech  was  intended  to  fill  an 
hour,  but  he  spoke  so  rapidly  that  he  had  several  minutes 
left  at  the  close. 

He  said  that  some  time  after  his  colleague  (Mr. 
Richardson)  introduced  the  resolutions  above  men- 
tioned, he  (Mr.  Lincoln)  introduced  a  preamble,  reso- 
lution, and  interrogatories,  intended  to  draw  the  Presi- 
dent out,  if  possible,  on  this  hitherto  untrodden  ground. 

To  show  their  relevancy,  [he  continued,]  I  propose  to 
state  my  understanding  of  the  rule  for  ascertaining  the 
boundary  between  Texas  and  Mexico.  It  is  that  wherever 
Texas  was  exercising  jurisdiction  was  hers;  and  wherever 
Mexico  was  exercising  jurisdiction  was  hers ;  and  that  what- 
ever separated  the  actual  exercise  of  jurisdiction  of  the  one 
from  that  of  the  other,  was  the  true  boundary  between  them. 
.  .  .  The  extent  of  our  territory  in  that  region  depended 
not  on  any  treaty-fixed  boundary  (for  no  treaty  had 
attempted  it),  but  on  revolution.  Any  people  anywhere,  being 
inclined  and  having  the  power,  have  the  right  to  rise  up  and 
shake  off  the  existing  government,  and  form  a  new  one  that 
suits  them  better.  This  is  a  most  valuable,  a  most  sacred 
right  —  a  right  which,  we  hope  and  believe,  is  to  liberate  the 
world.  Nor  is  this  right  confined  to  cases  in  which  the 
whole  people  of  an  existing  government  may  choose  to  exer- 
cise it.  Any  portion  of  such  people  that  can  may  revolu- 
tionize, and  make  their  own  of  so  much  of  the  territory  as 
they  inhabit.  More  than  this,  a  majority  of  any  portion  of 
such  people  may  revolutionize,  putting  down  a  minority,  in- 
intermingled  with  or  near  about  them,  who  may  oppose  their 
movements.  Such  minority  was  precisely  the  case  of  the 
;Tories  of  our  own  Revolution.  It  is  a  quality  of  revolutions 
not  to  go  by  old  lines,  or  old  laws ;  but  to  break  up  both, 


88       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

and  make  new  ones.  As  to  the  country  now  in  question, 
we  bought  it  of  France  in  1803,  and  sold  it  to  Spain  in  18 19, 
according  to  the  President's  statement.  After  this,  all  Mex- 
ico, including  Texas,  revolutionized  against  Spain ;  and  still 
later,  Texas  revolutionized  against  Mexico.  In  my  view, 
just  so  far  as  she  carried  her  revolution  by  obtaining  the 
actual,  willing  or  unwilling  submission  of  the  people,  so  far 
the  country  was  hers,  and  no  further.*    .    .    . 

The  war  has  gone  on  for  some  twenty  months ;  for  the 
expenses  of  which,  together  with  an  inconsiderable  old  score, 
the  President  now  claims  about  one-half  of  the  Mexican 
territory,  and  that  by  far  the  better  half,  so  far  as  concerns 
our  ability  to  make  anything  out  of  it.  It  is  comparatively 
uninhabited,  so  that  we  could  establish  land  offices  in  it,  and 
raise  some  money  in  that  way.  But  the  other  half  is  already 
inhabited,  as  I  understand  it,  tolerably  densely  for  the  nature 
of  the  country,  and  all  its  lands,  or  all  that  are  valuable, 
already  appropriated  as  private  property.    .    .    . 

As  to  the  mode  of  terminating  the  war  and  securing 
peace,  the  President  is  equally  wandering  and  indefinite. 
First,  it  is  to  be  done  by  a  more  vigorous  prosecution  of  the 
war  in  the  vital  part  of  the  enemy's  country;  and,  after 
apparently  talking  himself  tired  on  this  point,  the  President 
drops  down  into  a  half  despairing  tone,  and  tells  us,  that 
"with  a  people  distracted  and  divided  by  contending  factions, 
and  a  government  subject  to  constant  changes,  by  successive 
revolutions,  the  continued  success  of  our  arms  may  fail  to 
obtain  a  satisfactory  peace."  Then  he  suggests  the  propriety 
of  wheedling  the  Mexican  people  to  desert  the  counsels  of 
their  own  leaders,  and,  trusting  in  our  protection,  to  set  up 
a  government  from  which  we  can  secure  a  satisfactory  peace, 
telling  us  that  "  this  may  become  the  only  mode  of  obtaining 
such  a  peace !"  But  soon  he  falls  into  doubt  of  this  too,  and 
then  drops  back  to  the  already  half-abandoned  ground  of 
"  more  vigorous  prosecution."  All  this  shows  that  the  Pres- 
ident is  in  no  wise  satisfied  with  his  own  positions.    .    .    . 


*The  part  of  this  passage  relating  to  the  natural  right  of  revo- 
lution was  quoted  against  him  fifteen  years  later,  on  the  floor  of 
the  House.  Hon.  A.  H.  Stephens  also  claimed  that  this  was  an 
indorsement  of  Secession. 


IN  CONGRESS  — FIRST  SESSION.         89 

His  mind,  tasked  beyond  its  power,  is  running  hither  and 
thither,  like  some  tortured  creature  on  a  burning  surface, 
finding  no  position  on  which  it  can  settle  down  and  be  at 
ease.  .  .  .  He  is  a  bewildered,  confounded  and  miserably 
perplexed  man.  God  grant  he  may  be  able  to  show  there 
is  not  something  about  his  conscience  more  painful  than  all 
his  mental  perplexity. 

In  comparison  with  other  speeches  of  anti-Adminis- 
tration members  during  this  and  the  following  session, 
on  questions  immediately  growing  out  of  the  Mexican 
War,  his  position  may  well  be  pronounced  moderate. 
Of  slavery  as  a  motive  for  the  war,  not  a  word  is  spoken. 
At  one  point,  indeed,  a  hint  of  this  kind  seems  almost 
to  have  been  on  his  tongue,  only  to  vanish  inarticulate. 

There  was  no  lack  of  listeners  to  the  new  orator 
from  the  West;  no  one  could  fail  to  discern  something 
above  the  common  in  his  treatment  of  the  matter  in 
hand;  yet  the  speech  was  not  electrifying;  it  was  not 
of  the  kind  by  which  a  reputation  is  "  made  at  once." 
In  Illinois  there  were  even  some  mutterings  among 
his  Whig  constituents,  as  if  such  a  redoubtable  fact  as 
the  Mexican  War  should  have  been  simply  glorified  or 
quietly  let  alone. 

In  the  Illinois  Legislature  Lincoln  had  favored  inter- 
nal improvements  on  a  liberal  scale  at  the  expense  of 
the  State.  As  intimated  to  a  friend,  he  thought  the 
glory  of  a  DeWitt  Clinton  worthy  of  his  ambition. 
But  the  financial  crash  of  1837  put  an  end  to  such 
hopes.  In  regard  to  public  works  of  a  national  char- 
acter, he  was  still  an  ardent  follower  of  Henry  Clay. 
Lincoln  made  this  the  subject  of  a  speech  in  Congress 
on  the  20th  of  June. 

In  the  preceding  year  a  convention  had  been  held 


9o       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

at  Chicago,  in  which  the  Western  States  in  general 
were  represented,  to  add  the  force  of  a  commanding 
public  expression  in  favor  of  needed  improvements  by 
the  Federal  Government,  to  facilitate  navigation  on  the 
great  rivers  and  lakes.  The  convention  met  on  the  5th 
of  July,  1847,  and  its  sessions  extended  through  the  two 
following  days.  It  was  presided  over  by  Judge  Edward 
Bates,  of  St.  Louis,  whose  opening  speech  was  greatly 
admired  at  the  time,  and  talked  of  long  afterward  as  a 
rare  specimen  of  eloquence.  Among  the  other  distin- 
guished speakers  was  Thomas  Corwin,  then  in  his  best 
days,  who  had  no  superior  in  popular  oratory.  One  of 
the  distinguished  Western  men  who  notably  did  not 
attend  this  "  River  and  Harbor  Convention,"  so-called, 
was  Senator  Lewis  Cass,  whose  residence  at  Detroit 
seemed  to  make  his  presence  and  countenance,  as  a 
man  who  had  been  so  long  in  public  life,  almost 
imperative. 

Mr.  Cass  was  nominated  for  the  Presidency  by  the 
Democratic  National  Convention  which  met  at  Balti- 
more on  the  22d  day  of  May,  1848.  Soon  after  his 
nomination,  being  at  the  city  of  Cleveland,  he  had  been 
called  out,  and  was  making  thankful  response  to  his 
friends,  when  one  in  the  crowd  asked  an  expression  in 
regard  to  river  and  harbor  improvements.  Cass  replied 
that  the  "  noise  and  confusion "  would  prevent  his 
making  himself  understood.  It  was  after  this  last 
incident  that  Lincoln  spoke  on  the  general  subject  in 
the  House.  President  Polk,  early  in  the  session,  had 
vetoed  a  bill  making  appropriations  for  the  improve- 
ment of  rivers  and  harbors.  The  Baltimore  conven- 
tion which  nominated  Mr.  Cass  had  declared  in  its  plat- 


IN  CONGRESS  — FIRST  SESSION.         91 

form  against  the  constitutional  power  of  the  Govern- 
ment "  to  commence  and  carry  on  a  general  system  of 
internal  improvements,"  and  the  nominee,  in  his  letter 
of  acceptance,  had  indorsed  the  platform  without  reser- 
vation. Citing  these  facts  at  the  outset,  and  concluding 
from  them  that  the  question  of  such  improvements  was 
"  verging  to  a  final  crisis,"  Lincoln  said  the  friends  of 
the  policy  "  must  now  battle,  and  battle  manfully,  or 
surrender  all."  The  entire  speech  is  of  more  than  tran- 
sient value,  sustaining  the  prevalent  policy  of  the  Gov- 
ernment on  the  subject  from  that  day  to  the  present. 

A  treaty  with  Mexico,  unofficially  arranged  at  Guad- 
aloupe  Hidalgo  in  February  (1848),  was,  after  consid- 
erable delay,  ratified  by  both  governments  as  a  final 
pacification,  and  General  Scott  left  the  Mexican  capital 
in  June.  Not  only  was  the  Rio  Grande  conceded  as 
the  international  boundary  —  a  natural  and  fitting  one, 
—  but  also  that  great  domain  on  the  Pacific,  California, 
and  what  was  called  New  Mexico,  partly  included  now 
in  Utah  and  Arizona  —  all  confirmed  by  treaty  stipula- 
tion, be  it  as  indemnity,  purchase,  or  conquest,  or  all 
these  combined.  Such  a  consummation,  had  nothing 
more  serious  been  involved  than  the  cost  of  the  war  and 
the  comparatively  trivial  amount  of  purchase  money, 
would  have  been  brilliant  enough  to  dazzle  a  glory- 
loving  people. 

There  was,  however,  a  darker  side,  which  had  already 
disclosed  itself  in  the  deliberations  of  the  preceding  Con- 
gress. President  Polk  had  asked  a  grant  of  two  mil- 
lion dollars  to  be  used  in  negotiation.  The  acquisition 
of  Mexican  territory  was  understood  to  be  in  contem- 
plation.    That  Congress  was  strongly  Democratic  in 


92       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

both  houses.  Could  the  President  for  a  moment  doubt 
that  a  request  so  moderate  in  terms  would  be  readily 
granted?  Quite  unexpectedly,  a  Democratic  member 
from  Pennsylvania,  David  Wilmot  by  name,  proposed 
to  limit  the  grant  with  a  proviso  that  (using  the  terms 
of  the  Ordinance  of  1787  organizing  the  Northwest- 
ern Territory)  neither  slavery  nor  involuntary  servitude, 
except  for  crime,  should  ever  be  permitted  in  any  ter- 
ritory acquired  from  Mexico.  This  was  the  Wilmot 
Proviso,  long  to  be  remembered.  From  the  Calhoun 
party,  on  the  mere  motion,  there  was  a  great  outbreak 
of  wrath.  When  a  majority  of  the  House,  in  February, 
1847,  actually  voted  for  this  proviso,  the  storm  passed 
all  bounds.  Three  years  before,  Benton  said  in  secret 
session  of  the  Senate,  as  he  himself  tells  us,  in  opposing 
Calhoun's  treaty  for  the  annexation  of  Texas:  "  Dis- 
union is  at  the  bottom,  and  I  denounce  it  to  the  Ameri- 
can people.  Under  the  pretext  of  getting  Texas  into 
the  Union,  the  scheme  is  to  get  the  South  out  of  it." 
As  to  the  noise  made  over  the  Wilmot  Proviso,  Benton, 
writing  half  a  dozen  years  after  the  event,  was  equally 
explicit.  He  avers  that  Calhoun  really  "  hugged  "  the 
proviso  "  as  a  means  of  '  forcing  the  issue  '  between  the 
North  and  the  South."  For  two  years,  he  adds,  the 
Wilmot  Proviso  "  convulsed  the  Union." 

The  Senate  rejected  the  proviso,  and  the  Two  Mil- 
lion bill  fell  in  the  fight.  The  question  remained  as 
an  inheritance  to  the  Thirtieth  Congress,  and  had  lost 
nothing  of  its  significance  after  an  immense  territorial 
area  had  been  positively  acquired  under  the  ratified 
treaty  with  Mexico.  In  whatever  form  the  principle 
came   before   the   House  for   action   while   he   was   a 


IN  CONGRESS  — FIRST  SESSION.         93 

member,  it  was  sustained  by  the  vote  of  Abraham 
Lincoln. 

Senator  Cass,  to  make  himself  more  agreeable  to  the 
South,  had  written  a  letter  which  many  Northern  Dem- 
ocrats thought  too  obsequious,  wishing  in  particular  to 
remove  the  impression  created  by  a  vote  of  his,  that  he 
favored  legislation  for  "  freedom  in  the  territories."  A 
large  number  of  Democrats  in  New  York  and  Ohio, 
especially,  were  tending  toward  aggregation  into  a  sep- 
arate "  free  soil  "  wing.  Ex-President  Van  Buren  and 
his  close  friends  were  known  to  have  retained  some 
resentment  for  the  manner  in  which  he  was  defeated 
in  the  national  convention  of  1844.  Much  discontent 
in  the  party  at  once  manifested  itself  on  the  nomina- 
tion of  Mr.  Cass,  and  as  weeks  wore  on,  this  discon- 
tent rather  increased  than  diminished.  Another  hope- 
ful opportunity  was  presented  for  the  Whigs.  But  was 
it  possible  for  that  party  in  the  present  state  of  affairs 
to  be  thoroughly  united,  North  and  South,  on  a 
Presidential  ticket? 

The  Whig  National  Convention  met  at  Philadelphia 
on  the  8th  of  June.  Mr.  Clay  had  consented  to  accept 
another  nomination,  if  tendered  him,  and  active  exer- 
tions had  been  made  for  several  months  to  accomplish 
that  object.  There  had  early  been  much  talk  of  nomi- 
nating General  Taylor  as  a  more  expedient  move,  and 
after  the  battle  of  Buena  Vista  the  scheme  had  assumed 
strong  proportions.  General  Scott  was  preferred  by 
others.  Daniel  Webster  had  strong  adherents,  but  few 
farther  west  or  south  than  New  York.  Before  the  con- 
vention the  choice  was  substantially  narrowed  down  to 
Clay  or  Taylor. 


94       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

Lincoln  was  one  of  a  group  of  members,  including 
Mr.  Stephens  and  others  from  the  South,  who  actively 
urged  the  nomination  of  General  Taylor.  It  was  not  a 
distinctively  Southern  movement.  One  of  the  earliest 
and  most  influential  workers  in  this  cause  was  Thurlow 
Weed,  the  political  adjutant  of  Mr.  Seward  (not  as  yet 
a  Senator)  at  Albany.  Lincoln  wrote  letters  to  a  num- 
ber of  personal  friends  in  Illinois,  seeking  to  bring  them 
over  to  his  side.  It  has  been  continually  asserted  that 
he  was  himself  a  member  of  the  Philadelphia  conven- 
tion, but  such  was  not  the  fact.  He  neither  led  nor 
followed  the  sentiment  of  his  own  State,  which  sent  a 
delegation  united  and  unchangeable  in  their  support  of 
Clay.  They  did  not  see  fit  even  to  appoint  Lincoln  to 
a  vacancy,  though  there  happened  to  be  two.  He  was 
at  Philadelphia  during  the  convention,  however,  and 
made  his  presence  felt.* 

There  was  much  discontent  among  Northern  Whigs 
in  several  States  over  the  nomination  of  Taylor.  Part 
of  the  Massachusetts  delegation  openly  protested,  and 
withdrew  from  the  convention  before  the  ticket  was 
completed,  with  the  name  of  Millard  Fillmore  for  Vice- 
President.  Whig  and  Democratic  malcontents,  uniting 
with  the  "Liberty"  men  who  had  voted  for  Mr.  Birney 
in  1844,  held  a  convention  a  little  later  at  Buffalo, 
and  nominated  Martin  Van  Buren  and  Charles  Francis 
Adams.     One  of  the  leading  spirits  of  the  convention 


*The  delegates  were  Isaac  Vandeventer,  S.  Lisle  Smith,  James 
W.  Singleton,  Churchill  Coffing,  M.  P.  Sweet,  N.  G.  Wilcox, 
Ezra  Baker,  R.  H.  Allison,  J.  B.  Herrick.  The  main  facts  in  the 
case  were  furnished  to  the  writer  in  1866,  by  Colonel  Wilcox,  one 
of  the  delegates,  and  a  paymaster  in  the  army,  appointed  by  Lin- 
coln.   See  also  "  Complete  Works  "  (N.  &  H.),  I.,  155. 


IN  CONGRESS  — FIRST  SESSION.         95 

was  Salmon  P.  Chase,  of  Ohio,  to  whom  was  largely 
attributed  the  shaping  of  the  platform,  and  especially 
its  noted  phrase,  "  freedom  national,  slavery  sectional." 
It  soon  appeared  that  a  large  segment  of  the  Demo- 
cratic party  in  New  York  and  of  the  Whig  party  in 
Massachusetts,  with  many  from  both  parties  in  Ohio 
and  other  States,  would  support  this  "  Free  Soil " 
ticket. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

1 848- 1 849. 

In  Congress  —  Speeches  in  New  England  —  Meets  Mr. 
Seward  in  Boston  —  Fails  to  Receive  a  Federal  Appoint- 
ment  —  Whig  Candidate  for  Senator. 

Congress,  remaining  in  session  until  nearly  the  end 
of  summer,  gave  much  of  its  time  to  what  were  properly 
"  campaign  speeches."  In  this  vein  Lincoln  addressed 
the  House  on  the  27th  of  July.  "  Our  Democratic 
friends,"  he  began,  "  seem  to  be  in  great  distress  be- 
cause they  think  our  candidate  for  the  Presidency 
doesn't  suit  us;"  then  proceeded  to  vindicate  the  posi- 
tion of  General  Taylor  and  to  assail  that  of  General 
Cass,  with  much  banter  on  the  latter's  war  record;  and 
turned  the  tables  on  his  opponents,  who  accused  the 
Whigs  of  thrusting  aside  a  veteran  leader  to  take  up 
a  military  hero.  It  was  one  of  the  best  examples  of 
the  Western  stump  oratory  of  that  day,  though  still 
susceptible  of  improvement. 

In  this  speech  occurs,  in  an  incidental  way,  the  most 
explicit  expression  given  by  him  in  Congress  concern- 
ing the  cardinal  principle  of  the  new  Republican  party, 
as  yet  neither  formed  nor  foreseen.  After  saying  he 
did  not  certainly  know  what  General  Taylor  "  would  do 
as  to  the  Wilmot  Proviso,"  he  added:  "  I  am  a  North- 
ern man,  or,  rather,  a  Western  free-State  man,  with  a 

(96) 


IN  CONGRESS— AN  EASTERN  TOUR.     97 

constituency  I  believe  to  be,  and  with  personal  feelings 
I  know  to  be,  against  the  extension  of  slavery.  As 
such,  and  with  what  information  I  have,  I  hope  and 
believe  General  Taylor,  if  elected,  would  not  veto  the 
proviso;  but  I  do  not  know  it.  Yet,  if  I  knew  he  would, 
I  still  would  vote  for  him.  I  should  do  so,  because, 
in  my  judgment,  his  election  alone  can  defeat  General 
Cass;  and  because,  should  slavery  thereby  go  into  the 
territory  we  now  have,  just  so  much  will  certainly 
happen  by  the  election  of  Cass;  and,  in  addition,  a 
course  of  policy  leading  to  new  wars,  new  acquisitions 
of  territory,  and  still  further  extensions  of  slavery."  .  .  , 
Farther  on  he  said,  in  regard  to  the  Mexican  War: 
"  But  as  General  Taylor  is,  par  excellence,  the  hero  of 
the  Mexican  War,  and  as  you  Democrats  say  we  Whigs 
have  always  opposed  the  war,  you  think  it  must  be  very 
awkward  and  embarrassing  for  us  to  go  for  General 
Taylor.  The  declaration  that  we  have  always  opposed 
the  war  is  true  or  false,  according  as  one  may  under- 
stand the  term  '  opposing  the  war.'  If  to  say  '  the  war 
was  unnecessarily  and  unconstitutionally  commenced  by 
the  President '  be  opposing  the  war,  then  the  Whigs 
have  very  generally  opposed  it.  .  .  .  But  if,  when  the 
war  had  begun,  and  had  become  the  cause  of  the  coun- 
try, the  giving  of  our  money  and  our  blood,  in  common 
with  yours,  was  support  of  the  war,  then  it  is  not  true 
that  we  have  always  opposed  the  war.  With  few  indi- 
vidual exceptions,  you  have  constantly  had  our  votes 
here  for  all  the  necessary  supplies.  And,  more  than 
this,  you  have  had  the  services,  the  blood  and  the  lives 
of  our  political  brethren  in  every  trial,  and  on  every 
field.  .  .  .  Clay  and  Webster  each  gave  a  son,  never 
7 


98       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

to  be  returned.  From  the  State  of  my  own  residence, 
besides  other  worthy  but  less  known  Whig  names,  we 
sent  Marshall,  Morrison,  Baker,  and  Hardin;  they  all 
fought,  and  one  fell,  and  in  the  fall  of  that  one  we  lost 
our  best  Whig  man.  ...  In  speaking  of  this,  I  mean 
no  odious  comparison  between  the  lion-hearted  Whigs 
and  Democrats  who  fought  there.  ...  I  think  of  all 
those  brave  men  as  Americans,  in  whose  proud  fame, 
as  an  American,  I,  too,  have  a  share.  Many  of  them, 
Whigs  and  Democrats,  are  my  constituents  and  per- 
sonal friends;  and  I  thank  them  —  more  than  thank 
them  —  one  and  all,  for  the  high,  imperishable  honor 
they  have  conferred  on  our  common  State." 

This  third  and  last  of  his  "  set  speeches  "  in  Con- 
gress was  listened  to  with  an  interest  often  intense,  and 
its  sarcastic  passages  provoked  repeated  outbursts  of 
laughter.  Such  is  the  testimony  of  one  who  was  pres- 
ent on  this  occasion  (Mr.  C.  H.  Brainerd),  and  who  has 
supplied  these  additional  particulars: 

The  seats  in  the  old  Hall  of  Representatives  were  ar- 
ranged in  a  semi-circle,  and  divided  by  narrow  aisles,  radiat- 
ing like  the  spokes  of  a  wheel,  from  the  area  which  was 
occupied  by  the  Clerk's  desk  and  the  Speaker's  chair.  Mr. 
Lincoln's  seat  was  on  the  outer  range,  near  the  western 
entrance  of  the  hall.  His  speech  was  carefully  written  out 
on  sheets  of  foolscap  paper,  and  lay  before  him  on  his  desk. 
After  speaking  a  few  minutes  he  abandoned  his  notes  and 
trusted  to  his  memory  or  the  inspiration  of  the  moment.  Be- 
coming excited,  he  commenced  walking  down  the  aisle,  his 
right  arm  extended,  and  his  long,  bony  forefinger  pointing 
toward  the  Democratic  side  of  the  hall.  His  left  arm  was 
behind  him,  and  supported  the  skirts  of  his  black  dress  coat. 
He  seemed  almost  unconscious  of  his  movement  until  he 


IN  CONGRESS— AN  EASTERN  TOUR.     99 

crossed  the  area,  and  stood  face  to  face  with  the  members 
of  the  opposite  side,  when  he  would  turn  and,  quickly  walk- 
ing back  to  his  seat,  glance  at  his  manuscript,  and  then 
resume  his  walk.    He  thus  occupied  his  hour. 

In  February,  John  Quincy  Adams,  a  familiar  figure 
in  the  House  for  many  weeks  after  Lincoln  first  took 
his  seat  there,  had  fallen  paralyzed  in  his  presence,  soon 
to  see  "  the  last  of  earth."  The  Illinois  Whig  member, 
to  whom  the  ex-President  had  been  an  object  of  politi- 
cal adoration  and  a  source  of  inspiration  perhaps  second 
only  to  Henry  Clay,  was  appropriately  selected  as  one  of 
the  Congressional  delegation  to  accompany  the  remains 
of  Adams  to  their  burial  place  in  Massachusetts,  directly 
after  the  summer  adjournment  (August  14).  It  is  not 
strange  that  after  his  mission  to  Quincy  was  accom- 
plished, he  tarried  many  days  in  the  State.  There  were 
national  as  well  as  personal  reasons  for  this  detention. 
It  was  a  critical  year  in  politics.  A  son  of  the  lately 
deceased  ex-President,  named  for  Vice-President  by  the 
Van  Buren  Free  Soil  party,  was  expected  to  withdraw 
from  General  Taylor  a  large  share  of  the  anti-slavery 
Whigs  of  Massachusetts. 

Henry  Wilson  and  his  fellow-seceders  from  the  Phil- 
adelphia Convention  when  Clay  was  beaten,  were  work- 
ing with  might  and  main  in  the  confident  hope  of  carry- 
ing the  State  for  Van  Buren  and  Adams.  Charles  Sum- 
ner, after  years  of  quietude,  with  a  leaning  towards  the 
non-resistance  and  non-voting  abolitionism  of  Garrison 
and  Phillips,  was  now  beginning  to  take  hold  of  poli- 
tics. The  year  before  Sumner  had  been  disposed  to 
urge  that  Thomas  Corwin  be  taken  as  the  Whig  can- 
didate for  President,  after  that  Senator's  famous  Mexi- 


ioo       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

can  war  speech.  By  nature  and  training,  one  would 
then  have  supposed  Sumner  a  predestined  Whig  of  the 
true  Boston  type,  if  he  were  to  meddle  with  politics  at 
all.  He  seemed,  indeed,  not  to  have  been  constructed 
for  a  politician.  In  his  noted  Fourth-of-July  oration 
(1845),  on  "'The  Grandeur  of  Nations,"  he  denounced 
war  and  warriors,  and  deprecated  all  preparations  for 
war,  even  militia  organization.  "  Military  chieftains  " 
he  could  not  abide,  and  so  fixed  his  choice  on  Van 
Buren  in  preference  to  Taylor  or  Cass.  Even  Daniel 
Webster  had  said  the  Whig  nomination  was  one  "  not 
fit  to  be  made."  It  was  very  late  in  the  canvass  before 
he  came  to  the  support  of  his  party  in  a  Faneuil  Hall 
speech  against  Van  Buren  and  the  Buffalo  platform 
rather  than  in  favor  of  Taylor.  Horace  Greeley,  whose 
Tribune  had  a  New  England  constituency,  almost  missed 
coming  out  for  Taylor  and  Fillmore,  but  ran  up  that 
banner  at  the  last  moment,  after  their  election  was 
deemed  sure.  Altogether,  certainly,  the  prospect  was 
far  from  pleasing  to  Massachusetts  Whigs  when  they 
gathered  at  Worcester  for  their  State  convention,  held 
on  the  13th  of  September. 

That  city  was  the  very  headquarters  of  the  Free 
Soil  revolt;  but  it  had  been  the  wonted  place  for  State 
conventions,  and  it  was  best  to  beard  the  lion  in  his  den. 
Two  orators  from  a  distance  were  invited  to  speak  on 
the  evening  of  the  12th,  Abraham  Lincoln  and  Leslie 
Coombs,  the  latter  the  neighbor  and  personal  friend  of 
Henry  Clay.  The  former  was  claimed  by  the  chairman, 
who  introduced  him  as  "  one  of  our  Lincolns."  Con- 
temporary press  reports  —  only  a  summary,  as  usual  in 
those  days  —  indicate  that  his  speech  included  in  sub- 


IN  CONGRESS— AN  EASTERN  TOUR.    101 

stance  a  good  share  of  the  most  telling  passages  of  his 
27th  of  July  speech  in  the  House,  and  the  main  argu- 
ments of  his  earlier  one  on  the  Mexican  War.  The 
principal  new  matter  seems  to  have  been  in  relation  to 
the  extension  of  slavery.  As  Webster  did  later,  Lincoln 
argued  that  the  Whigs  were  as  positive  as  the  Free  Sort- 
ers, and  more  practical  than  they,  in  supporting  free 
soil;  that  opponents  of  slavery  would  gain  nothing  and 
lose  much  in  helping  to  defeat  the  Whig  candidate  and 
to  elect  Cass.  It  was  called  a  "  truly  masterly  and  con- 
vincing "  speech;  and  at  its  close  "the  audience  gave 
three  enthusiastic  cheers  for  Illinois,  and  three  more  for 
the  eloquent  Whig  member  from  that  State."  Another 
contemporary  account  represents  it  as  "  one  of  the  best 
speeches  ever  heard  in  Worcester,"  and  of  good  effect 
in  reclaiming  errant  Whigs.  It  made  Lincoln  person- 
ally known  to  a  great  number  of  people  from  all  parts 
of  the  State.  He  was  much  in  request  thereafter  as  a 
speaker,  and  several  invitations  were  accepted  during 
the  next  ten  days.  He  spoke  at  New  Bedford,  Ded- 
ham,  Dorchester,  Cambridge,  Lowell,  and  other  places; 
and  more  notably  in  Boston,  at  Tremont  Temple,  on 
the  evening  of  September  22d,  on  the  same  platform 
with  Governor  William  H.  Seward,  who  preceded  him. 
This  was  almost  certainly  the  first  time  these  two 
speakers  ever  met.  Seward  had  as  yet  seen  no  Con- 
gressional service,  though  he  had  twice  been  elected 
Governor  of  New  York.  In  the  February  following 
(1849)  ne  was  elected  to  the  United  States  Senate.  He 
was  not  altogether  a  pleasing  speaker  as  to  voice  or 
manner,  though  he  commanded  close  attention  by  the 
matter  which  he  presented  with  finished  rhetoric.     He 


102       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

was,  of  course,  much  more  radical  in  those  days  as  to 
slavery  than  Lincoln,  and  in  Northern  Ohio,  later  in  the 
canvass,  used  such  extreme  expressions  in  endeavoring 
to  stay  the  defection  of  anti-slavery  Whigs  as  to  have 
a  reactionary  effect  in  other  directions.  Massachusetts 
voted  for  General  Taylor,  but  Ohio  did  not.  Many 
years  after  their  later  association  in  more  important 
affairs  was  ended,  it  was  told,  no  doubt  on  the  author- 
ity of  Mr.  Seward,  that  in  conversing  together  on  that 
evening  in  Boston  when  the  speaking  was  over,  Lincoln 
remarked:  "  I  have  been  thinking  over  what  you  have 
said.  I  reckon  you're  right.  We  have  got  to  deal  with 
this  slavery  question,  and  got  to  give  much  more  atten- 
tion to  it  hereafter  than  we  have  been  doing."  *  If  his 
activity  was  quickened  or  his  purpose  modified  by  what 
he  heard  that  night,  Lincoln's  opinions  were  not  mate- 
rially changed.  This  may  be  seen  from  his  own  words 
before  and  after. 

He  called  upon  Thurlow  Weed  at  Albany,  on  the 
way  homeward  from  Boston  —  as  appears  from  the  lat- 
ter's  recollections  —  and  they  together  had  an  interview 
with  Millard  Fillmore,  the  candidate  for  Vice-President. 
He  was  gaining  acquaintance  with  the  chiefs  of  both 
wings  of  the  Whig  party  in  New  York. 

The  few  weeks  of  the  campaign  remaining  after  his 
return  home  were  chiefly  devoted  to  the  canvass  in 
Illinois.  In  his  own  district  Judge  Stephen  T.  Logan, 
the  Whig  nominee  for  Representative  in  Congress,  was 
beaten;  but  the  majority  for  General  Taylor  was  over 


*E.  L.  Pierce's  "Life  of  Sumner."     See  also  "Life  of  W.  H. 
Seward"  (F.  W.  S.),  II.,  80. 


IN  CONGRESS— SLAVERY  TURMOIL.     103 

fifteen  hundred — slightly  less  than  Lincoln  had  received 
at  his  election  two  years  before. 

The  defection  from  the  Democratic  party  in  New 
York,  in  which  Van  Buren  had  a  large  vote,  gave  that 
State  to  Taylor,  as  the  "  Liberty  "  vote  four  years  pre- 
viously had  given  it  to  Polk;  and  in  both  cases  the  large 
electoral  vote  of  the  Empire  State  was  decisive  of  the 
general  result.  Zachary  Taylor  and  Lewis  Cass  carried 
each  an  equal  number  of  States  —  fifteen  —  Taylor  hav- 
ing one  hundred  and  sixty-three  and  Cass  one  hundred 
and  twenty-seven  electoral  votes. 

The  second  session  of  the  Thirtieth  Congress,  com- 
ing between  the  election  and  the  inauguration  of  a  new 
President,  would  no  doubt  have  been  a  very  quiet  one 
but  for  the  territorial  acquisition  from  Mexico.  An 
older  controversy  that  had  been  languishing  was  now 
revived.  If  Congress  really  had  exclusive  and  complete 
jurisdiction  over  the  District  of  Columbia,  why  should 
it  longer  tolerate  slavery  there?  Why  should  the  sale 
of  slaves,  as  a  regular  market  business,  be  permitted  to 
go  on  almost  under  the  windows  of  the  Capitol? 

Where  Lincoln's  sympathies  were,  as  to  these  latter 
matters,  may  be  clearly  seen  from  his  action  on  the 
territorial  question.  There  were  to  his  mind,  however, 
practical  difficulties  in  the  one  case  that  did  not  exist 
in  the  other.  Whatever  his  reasons,  he  now  stood  in 
the  same  position  as  when  he  wrote  his  "  protest "  in 
1837.  When  Mr.  Palfrey,  of  Massachusetts,  sought  to 
introduce  a  bill  "  to  repeal  all  acts,  or  parts  of  acts,  of 
Congress,  establishing  or  maintaining  slavery  or  the 
slave  trade  in  the  District  of  Columbia,"  and  Mr. 
Holmes,  of  South  Carolina,  objected,  under  the  rules, 


104        LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

Lincoln  was  one  of  the  few  Northern  men  who  voted 
against  granting  the  leave  asked.  His  colleague,  Mr. 
Wentworth,  from  the  Chicago  district,  and  one  or  two 
other  Northern  Democrats,  voted  in  favor  of  Mr.  Pal- 
frey's request.  Mr.  Vinton,  of  Ohio,  and  Mr.  Dunn,  of 
Indiana,  among  Northern  Whigs,  voted  with  Lincoln 
on  the  side  of  the  united  South.  The  negative  majority 
was  altogether  but  thirteen. 

On  the  2 1  st  of  December,  Mr.  Gott,  of  New  York, 
introduced  a  resolution,  with  a  preamble  declaring  that 
the  "  traffic  now  prosecuted  in  this  metropolis  of  the 
Republic  in  human  beings,  as  chattels,  is  contrary  to 
national  justice  and  the  fundamental  principles  of  our 
political  system,  and  is  notoriously  a  reproach  to  our 
country  throughout  Christendom,  and  a  serious  hin- 
drance to  the  progress  of  republican  liberty  among  the 
nations  of  the  earth;"  —  the  resolution  instructing  the 
District  Committee  "  to  report  a  bill,  as  soon  as  prac- 
ticable, prohibiting  the  trade  in  said  District." 

Lincoln  and  three  other  Northern  Whigs  —  Inger- 
soll,  of  Pennsylvania,  and  Dunn  and  Thompson,  of 
Indiana  —  voted  with  the  South,  to  lay  the  resolution 
on  the  table.  A  reconsideration  having  been  moved, 
the  subject  was  postponed  until  the  ioth  of  January, 
and  on  that  day  Lincoln  read  a  proposed  substitute,  in 
the  form  of  a  bill,  providing  that  no  person  not  already 
within  the  District  should  be  held  in  slavery  therein, 
and  prescribing  a  process  of  gradual  emancipation 
there,  with  compensation  to  owners  voluntarily  freeing 
their  slaves;  the  measure,  however,  to  be  conditioned 
on  the  assent  of  the  people  of  the  District,  by  a  majority 
vote,  at  a  special  election.     The  bill  also  made  an  excep- 


IN  CONGRESS— SLAVERY  TURMOIL.     105 

tion,  allowing  citizens  of  slaveholding  States  coming 
into  the  District  on  public  business  to  "  be  attended 
into  and  out  of  said  District,  and  while  there,  by  the 
necessary  servants  of  themselves  and  their  families,"  and 
recognized  the  right  to  reclaim  fugitive  slaves  therein 
as  in  free  territory  elsewhere.  Lincoln  said  he  was 
authorized  to  state  that  of  about  fifteen  of  the  leading 
citizens  of  the  District  to  whom  this  plan  had  been 
submitted,  there  was  no  one  who  did  not  approve  of 
the  adoption  of  such  a  proposition.  The  bill,  however, 
received  no  further  attention.  With  the  close  of  the 
short  session,  March  3,  1849,  ms  Congressional  service 
came  to  an  end. 

Since  the  Presidency  of  Jackson,  a  division  of  spoils 
had  been  expected  to  follow  a  party  triumph.  Lincoln 
having  labored  with  more  than  his  usual  zeal  for  the 
nomination  as  well  as  the  election  of  the  new  President, 
ought  not  the  retiring  Congressman  to  be  offered  a 
valuable  place  under  the  Government?  No  such  offer 
came.  He  generously  urged  that  a  place  in  the  Cab- 
inet should  be  given  to  Colonel  Edward  D.  Baker,  but 
no  office  of  that  magnitude  was  wont  to  be  flung  so  far 
West.  Even  so  late  as  i860  the  highest  Federal  office 
distributed  in  Indiana,  Illinois,  Missouri,  or  States  more 
remote,  was  that  of  Commissioner  of  the  General  Land 
Office,  which  had  been  successively  held  by  some  of  the 
foremost  men  in  Ohio  and  Indiana.*     Qeneral  James 


*Judge  John  McLean,  after  serving  two  terms  in  Congress, 
and  some  years  on  the  Supreme  Bench  of  Ohio,  was  appointed 
Commissioner  of  the  General  Land  Office  in  1822,  and  next  year 
Postmaster  General. 


106       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

Shields,  who  held  the  place  when  the  Mexican  War 
began,  had  been  succeeded  as  Commissioner  by  Richard 
M.  Young,  one  of  the  Judges  of  the  Supreme  Court  of 
Illinois.  The  Whig  members  of  the  Illinois  Legisla- 
ture and  some  other  prominent  men  of  the  State  had 
united  in  recommending  Mr.  Browning,  of  Quincy,  to 
be  Judge  Young's  successor.  After  mature  reflection, 
Browning  declined  to  have  his  name  presented  to  the 
President.  Then  testimonials  were  prepared  for  Cyrus 
Edwards,  a  constituent  of  Lincoln,  who  added  his  own 
indorsement.  A  formidable  competitor  soon  appeared 
in  the  person  of  Justin  Butterfield,  a  prominent  lawyer 
of  Chicago,  who  had  failed  to  get  the  coveted  place  of 
Solicitor  of  the  Treasury.  He  had  been  a  champion  of 
Mr.  Clay,  and  strongly  opposed  to  the  nomination  of 
General  Taylor,  which  no  doubt  brought  him  valuable 
support  from  the  former's  friends,  and  he  secured  the 
favor  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior,  Hon.  Thomas 
Ewing. 

Butterfield  was  not  a  favorite  among  the  Whigs  of 
the  State  in  general,  and  with  the  approval  of  Edwards, 
who  was  sure  to  be  beaten,  Lincoln  became  a  candi- 
date. About  the  middle  of  June  two  Illinois  friends 
of  Lincoln  —  Colonel  Greene  Wilcox  and  Josiah  M. 
Lucas  —  waited  on  the  President,  hoping  that  he  might 
be  influenced  to  another  decision  than  that  which  the 
Chicago  applicant  was  confidently  expecting.  This 
embassy  met  a  gracious  reception  at  the  White  House; 
but  it  was  soon  discovered  only  too  plainly  that  the 
blunt  General  had  already  made  up  his  mind,  and  was 
not  disposed  to  assume  any  disguise  in  talking  of  the 
matter.     In  answer  to  a  mild  inquiry,  he  said  it  was  true 


NO  OFFICIAL  REWARD  FROM  TAYLOR.   107 

that  he  intended  to  displace  Judge  Young.  Thereupon, 
after  reminding  the  President  that  Abraham  Lincoln 
was  a  candidate  for  the  succession,  Colonel  Wilcox  said 
the  gentleman  was  on  his  way  to  Washington,  and  had 
telegraphed  from  Dayton,  Ohio,  that  he  would  be  here 
as  soon  as  possible;  and  expressed  the  hope  that  final 
action  in  the  case  would  be  delayed  until  Lincoln's 
arrival.     This  was  promised. 

In  due  course  of  railway  trains  Lincoln  appeared, 
but  the  case  was  really  no  longer  open.  The  chief 
interest  in  the  matter  now  lies  in  the  following  mem- 
orandum (copied  by  the  writer  from  the  original  in 
Lincoln's  handwriting),  addressed  to  President  Taylor: 

Nothing  in  my  papers  questions  Mr.  B.'s  competency  or 
honesty,  and,  I  presume,  nothing  in  his  questions  mine.  Be- 
ing equal  so  far,  if  it  does  not  appear  I  am  preferred  by  the 
Whigs  of  Illinois,  I  lay  no  claim  to  the  office. 

But  if  it  does  appear  I  am  preferred,  it  will  be  argued 
that  the  whole  Northwest,  and  not  Illinois  alone,  should  be 
heard.  I  answer  I  am  strongly  recommended  by  Ohio  and 
Indiana,  as  well  as  Illinois ;  and  further,  that  when  the  many 
appointments  were  made  for  Ohio,  as  for  the  Northwest,  Illi- 
nois was  not  consulted.  When  an  Indianian  was  nominated 
for  Governor  of  Minnesota,  and  another  appointed  for  Com- 
missioner of  Mexican  Claims,  as  for  the  Northwest,  Illinois 
was  not  consulted.  When  a  citizen  of  Iowa  was  appointed 
Second  Assistant  Postmaster  General  and  another  to  a  Land 
Office  in  Minnesota,  Illinois  was  not  consulted.  Of  none  of 
these  have  I  ever  complained.  In  each  of  them,  the  State 
whose  citizen  was  appointed  was  allowed  to  control,  and  I 
think  rightly.  I  only  ask  that  Illinois  be  not  cut  off  with  less 
deference. 

It  will  also  be  argued  that  all  the  Illinois  appointments, 
so  far,  have  been  South,  and  that  therefore  this  should  go 
North.  I  answer,  that  of  the  local  appointments  every  part 
has  had  its  share,  and  Chicago  far  the  best  share  of  any. 
Of  the  transitory,  the  Marshal  and  Attorney  are  all;  and\ 


108        LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

neither  of  these  is  within  a  hundred  miles  of  me,  the  former 
being  South  and  the  latter  North  of  West.  I  am  in  the 
center.  Is  the  center  nothing  ? — that  center  which  alone  has 
ever  given  you  a  Whig  representative?  On  the  score  of 
locality,  I  admit  the  claim  of  the  North  is  no  worse,  and  I 
deny  that  it  is  any  better  than  that  of  the  center. 


Lincoln's  peculiar  skill  in  making  the  facts  of  a  case 
their  own  argument  has  no  better  example  than  in  this 
paper  (never  before  printed).  It  was  conclusive  on  the 
points  he  understood  to  be  in  issue.  There  was,  how- 
ever, another  difficulty  not  then  so  well  known  as  after- 
ward. Taylor  permitted  his  Cabinet  to  decide  his  ap- 
pointments —  contrary  to  Executive  usage  twelve  years 
later.  Under  that  policy,  Cabinet  officers  mutually 
sustained  one  another,  securing  to  each  the  control  of 
offices  in  his  own  department.  Secretary  Ewing  had 
promised  the  place  in  question;  the  case  was  referred  to 
the  Cabinet,  and  Ewing  kept  his  word. 

Mr.  Lincoln  wrote  to  a  friend  at  Springfield,  [said 
Colonel  Wilcox  to  the  writer,]  that  "  nothing  but  Ewing's 
promise  saved  Butterfield."  A  day  or  two  after,  he  was 
walking  in  his  room,  and  speaking  of  his  pecuniary  circum- 
stances he  paused  and  looking  up  to  the  ceiling  said  to  a 
friend:  "I  am  worth  about  three  thousand  dollars;  I  have 
a  little  property  and  owe  no  debts ;  it  is  perhaps  well  that  I 
did  not  get  this  appointment.  I  will  go  home  and  resume 
my  practice,  at  which  I  can  make  a  living  —  and  perhaps 
some  day  the  people  may  have  use  for  me."  .  .  .  He  called 
on  Mr.  Ewing  at  the  Department  for  the  purpose  of  with- 
drawing his  papers,  when  the  Secretary  remarked  that  if 
Mr.  Lincoln  had  applied  when  the  administration  came  in 
he  should  have  had  the  office.  The  latter  replied  that  if 
Mr.  Ewing  would  reduce  that  statement  to  writing  he  would 
be  satisfied,  and  the  Secretary  thereupon  gave  him  a  letter 
to  that  effect. 


NO  OFFICIAL  REWARD  FROM  TAYLOR.   109 

It  is  commonly  reported  unto  this  day  that  the  Gov- 
ernorship of  Oregon  was  offered  to  Lincoln  afterward, 
and  declined  on  account  of  Mrs.  Lincoln's  disinclina- 
tion to  such  banishment.  This  would  imply  that  the 
Administration  volunteered  what  was  deemed  a  recom- 
pense for  a  previous  disappointment.  Lincoln  made 
no  complaint,  asked  nothing  else,  and  the  plain  truth 
must  be  told  that  the  only  place  offered  him,  so  far  as 
the  files  of  the  State  Department  show,  was  one  he 
could  not  with  due  self-respect  accept.  In  the  writer's 
possession  are  two  copies  of  commissions  of  the  same 
date,  certified  under  the  seal  of  the  department  —  issued 
August  9,  1849,  and  returned  to  the  files  with  the 
indorsement  "  Declined  "  —  one  to  Hon.  Joseph  G. 
Marshall,  of  Indiana,  as  Governor  of  the  Territory  of 
Oregon,  and  the  other  to  Hon.  Abraham  Lincoln  as 
Secretary  of  that  Territory. 

A  United  States  Senator  was  to  be  chosen  at  the 
next  session  of  the  Illinois  Legislature,  but  a  Whig 
majority  in  that  body  was  not  among  the  possibilities 
of  the  time.  Lincoln  was  voted  for  by  the  Whig  mem- 
bers for  that  office  when  the  election  came  off,  while 
the  more  effective  vote  of  the  Democratic  majority  was 
given  to  General  James  Shields,  who  had  resigned  his 
place  as  Commissioner  of  the  General  Land  Office  to 
go  to  the  war,  had  been  shot  through  the  body  on  a 
Mexican  battlefield,  and  had  come  back  a  military  hero, 
who  could  easily  distance  all  political  competitors. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

1849-1855. 

Professional  Work  and  Ways — Home  and  Family — Eulogy 
on  Henry  Clay  —  Law  Cases. 

Late  in  the  forties  Chicago  was  a  small  but  hopeful 
city,  claiming  fifteen  thousand  inhabitants,  and  assuring 
the  world  that  it  was  "  rapidly  growing."  On  return- 
ing from  Congress  Lincoln  was  offered  a  promising 
partnership  there,  which  he  declined,  and  contentedly 
resumed  the  practice  which  his  young  associate  had 
kept  alive.  With  this  he  was  to  be  chiefly  concerned 
for  the  next  five  years.  He  sensitively  watched,  in 
silence  and  distance,  the  great  political  turmoil  at 
Washington;  the  inaugurated  movements  for  secession 
in  the  Cotton  States;  the  increasing  intensity  of  anti- 
slavery  feeling  in  the  North;  the  new  compromise  strug- 
gling into  life;  and  the  lull  which  came  at  length,  as  if 
everybody  had  wearied  of  this  sad  business  and  wanted 
solid  repose.  He  made  a  few  campaign  speeches  for 
Winfield  Scott  in  1852,  but  the  ill-starred  party  was  in 
a  mortal  decline. 

His  winter  attendance  on  the  Federal  courts  at 
Springfield  began  in  December,  before  Justice  John 
McLean,  of  the  Supreme,  and  Judge  Nathaniel  Pope, 
of  the  District  Court.  McLean  was  a  courtly  gentle- 
man, whose  home  was  in  a  hill  suburb  (now  part)  of 

(no) 


AT  THE  BAR— HOME  AND  FAMILY,     in 

Cincinnati.  When  still  a  very  young  man  he  was 
Postmaster-General  under  President  Monroe,  and  with 
William  Wirt,  Attorney-General,  remained  in  office 
through  the  term  of  President  Adams.  Unwilling  to 
aid  President  Jackson  in  his  methods  of  civil  service 
reform,  McLean  was  honorably  relieved  by  promotion 
to  the  Supreme  Bench,  and  only  lacked  the  Presidency 
to  fill  the  full  measure  of  his  ambition.  Judge  Pope 
was  a  son  of  Senator  John  Pope,  of  Kentucky,  and  as 
the  Territorial  delegate  when  Illinois  was  admitted  as 
a  State  had  secured  a  large  extension  of  its  area  —  all 
that  part  north  of  a  line  running  due  west  from  the 
southern  point  of  Lake  Michigan.  Before  these  two 
Judges  Lincoln  met  many  distinguished  lawyers,  and 
was  employed  in  cases  that  taxed  his  best  powers.  The 
county  courts  of  the  Eighth  District  —  presided  over, 
after  1848,  by  Judge  David  Davis,  an  intimate  friend  of 
Lincoln,  and  afterward  so  well  known  to  the  nation  — 
sat  at  Springfield  in  March,  July  and  November,  and  in 
its  other  counties  there  were  only  two  tours,  one  begin- 
ning in  April  and  the  other  in  September.  Excepting 
special  calls  that  occasionally  took  him  to  other  coun- 
ties, it  will  thus  appear  that  the  time  of  his  absence  from 
home  was  less  than  some  have  alleged. 

His  superiority  as  a  jury  advocate  was  early  recog- 
nized. Without  broad  and  thorough  learning  in  the 
law,  he  had  a  mind  quick  to  grasp  and  firm  to  hold  the 
combined  facts  and  principles  of  a  case,  an  aptness  and 
lucidity  of  statement,  and  a  rare  power  of  close  and 
exhaustive  analysis.  He  had  a  candid  and  comprehen- 
sive way  of  viewing  both  sides  of  a  question,  and  thereby 
reaching  honest  conclusions.     This  was  one  of  his  pecu- 


ii2        LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

liar  qualities  on  the  stump  as  well  as  at  the  bar.  He 
had  so  strong  a  bias  for  the  right  for  its  own  sake  as 
to  be  embarrassed  in  any  attempt  to  make  the  worse 
appear  the  better  cause.  More  than  once  he  was  so 
scrupulous,  not  to  say  singular,  in  this  respect  as  to 
astonish  some  of  his  professional  associates.  The  trait, 
however,  must  not  be  so  exaggerated  or  misconstrued 
as  to  imply  that  he  assumed  infallibility  in  determining 
the  right  side;  or  that  he  was  less  conscious  than  others 
of  the  uncertainties  of  fact  as  well  as  of  law;  or  that 
he  had  an  undue  sense  of  accountability  for  an  unjust 
result  of  a  trial  in  which  he  took  part.  Nor  can  it  be 
true  that  he  would  decline  to  aid  in  saving  a  known 
offender  from  the  infliction  of  an  excessive  penalty,  or 
in  protecting  a  litigant,  who  was  really  in  the  wrong, 
from  an  oppressive  verdict. 

Believing  in  the  supremacy  of  law  over  mere  indi- 
vidual will,  wish  or  interest,  he  was  not  disposed  to 
regard  his  own  conceptions  of  a  higher  than  human  law 
as  a  valid  substitute  for  legislative  authority.  Yet  the 
first-hand  conclusions  of  reason,  moral  judgment  and 
common  sense  in  administering  the  law  —  and  what 
better  origin  has  precedent  itself?  —  were  undoubtedly 
sometimes  sufficient  to  his  mind  without  further  sup- 
port. When  he  found  a  bewildering  contradiction  of 
precedents,  he  did  not  care  to  juggle  with  citations. 
He  had  little  patience  with  sophisms.  He  thought  his 
own  process  of  reaching  an  honest  conclusion,  presented 
clearly,  was  his  best  method  for  convincing  the  mind  of 
another.  In  this  spirit  he  was  wont  to  speak,  whether 
addressing  judge,  jury,  or  people. 

After  his  admission  to  the  bar  he  never  dabbled  in 


AT  THE  BAR— HOME  AND  FAMILY.    113 

farming,  trading,  or  speculating.  Besides  his  city  home- 
stead, he  owned  no  real  estate  except  a  lot  presented  to 
him  in  the  town  of  Lincoln  (Illinois)  —  named  in  his 
honor  —  and  a  quarter  section  of  bounty  land  granted 
him  for  service  in  the  Black  Hawk  War.  The  latter 
property  he  neither  sold  nor  improved.  He  was  mod- 
erate in  his  professional  charges,  ana  indulgent  as  to  any 
return  from  a  client  who  was  poor.  He  did  not,  conse- 
quently, accumulate  money  rapidly,  although  he  came 
to  have  practice  enough  to  make  him  affluent  had  he 
dealt  a  little  more  rigidly.  He  had,  in  fact,  no  craving 
for  great  wealth,  even  as  an  aid  to  political  ambition. 
The  golden  lever  was  not  in  his  day  the  power  most 
relied  upon  in  politics,  nor  was  it  one  he  would  have 
ever  cared  to  use. 

He  was  regarded  by  District  Judge  Drummond,  of 
Chicago,  a  political  opponent,  as  one  of  the  most  suc- 
cessful lawyers  that  Illinois  ever  had,  and  as  not  more 
powerful  before  a  jury  than  with  the  court.  Judge 
David  Davis,  holding  the  same  opinion,  pronounced 
Lincoln  "  the  fairest  and  most  accommodating  of  prac- 
titioners" ;  while,  hating  as  he  did  oppression  and 
knavery,  "  many  a  man  whose  fraudulent  conduct  was 
undergoing  a  review  in  a  court  of  justice  has  writhed 
under  his  terrific  indignation  and  rebuke."  A  witness 
believed  unscrupulous  would  be  dealt  with  in  the  same 
unsparing  manner.  Few  of  his  professional  contempo- 
raries during  his  more  active  practice  had  as  large  a 
number  of  cases  before  the  Supreme  Court  of  Illinois 
as  Lincoln. 

During   the    sessions    of   the    Legislature    and    the 
courts,  Mrs.  Lincoln  in  these  years  was  wont  to  give 
8 


ii4       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

occasional  dinners  and  evening  parties.  As  a  hostess 
she  was  gracious  and  affable  as  well  as  liberal;  perhaps 
no  one  in  the  city  who  entertained  was  more  generally 
popular  than  she.  While  her  father  lived  (his  death 
occurred  in  1849)  there  were  visits  with  her  husband 
to  Lexington,  Kentucky,*  where  she  had  a  number  of 
brothers  and  sisters  of  the  half-blood.  When  there  Lin- 
coln would  naturally  call  on  Henry  Clay  if  he  was  at  the 
time  at  Ashland.  One  such  visit,  perhaps  it  was  the  only 
one,  has  been  mentioned  as  chilling  the  hero-worship- 
er's devotion,  if  not  effecting  a  complete  disillusion. 
But  this  is  clearly  an  extravagant  over-statement,  if  it 
has  any  basis  at  all.  There  may  have  been  an  unex- 
pected distance  in  Clay's  manner,  and  not  as  many  sto- 
ries were  told,  we  may  be  sure,  as  at  the  meeting  with 
Van  Buren  on  the  prairies  in  1843;  yet  Lincoln  was  to 
the  last  an  admirer  of  the  great  orator  and  conciliator 
who  was  his  earliest  political  master. 

At  the  time  of  his  election  to  Congress,  Robert 
and  Edward  were  his  only  children  —  the  former  born 
August  1,  1843,  tne  latter  March  10,  1846.  His  family 
were  with  him  during  part  of  his  term  at  Washington. 
"Eddie"  died  February  1,  1850,  and  William  was 
born  the  21st  of  December  following.  The  youngest 
child,  born  April  4,  1853,  was  given  the  name  of  his 
deceased  grandfather,  Thomas,  though  in  childhood 
more  commonly  called  "  Tad."  Of  their  domestic  life, 
according  to  Mr.  W.  H.  Herndon,f  Mrs.  Lincoln  said 
(in  1865):  "  Mr.  Lincoln  was  the  kindest  man  and  most 


*See  "Complete  Works"  (N.  &  H.),  I,  577- 
fin  Springfield  Register,  January  14,  1874. 


EULOGY  ON  CLAY.  115 

loving  husband  and  father  in  the  world.  He  gave  us  all 
unbounded  liberty.  .  .  .  He  was  exceedingly  indulgent 
to  his  children.  .  .  .  He  was  a  terribly  firm  man  when 
he  set  his  foot  down.  None  of  us  —  no  man  or  woman 
—  could  rule  him  after  he  had  made  up  his  mind.,, 

Thomas  Lincoln,  the  father,  died  on  the  15th  of 
January,  1851,  at  Farmington,  in  Coles  County,  in  the 
seventy-fourth  year  of  his  age.  His  funeral  sermon  was 
preached  by  Rev.  Thomas  Goodwin,  Campbellite,  of 
Charleston,  in  that  county,  who  said  in  1887,  not  long 
before  his  own  death:  "In  his  case  I  could  not  say 
aught  but  good.  He  was  a  consistent  member  through 
life  of  the  church  of  my  choice  —  the  Christian  Church, 
or  Church  of  Christ;  and  was,  as  far  as  I  know  — 
and  I  was  a  very  intimate  friend  —  illiterate,  yet  always 
truthful,  conscientious,  and  religious." 

The  eulogy  on  Henry  Clay  pronounced  by  Lincoln 
in  July,  1852,  at  Springfield,  was  not  regarded  as  one  of 
his  best  efforts,  yet  at  this  distance  in  time  parts  of  it 
afford  glimpses  of  self-revelation  and  are  otherwise  of 
particular  interest.  He  said  that  "Mr.  Clay's  eloquence 
did  not  consist,  as  many  fine  specimens  of  eloquence  do, 
of  tropes  and  figures,  of  antithesis  and  elegant  arrange- ! 
ment  of  words  and  sentences,  but  rather  of  that  deeply 
earnest  and  impassioned  tone  and  manner  which  can1 
proceed  only  from  great  sincerity  and  a  thorough  con- 
viction in  the  speaker  of  the  justice  and  importance  of 
his  cause.  This  it  is  that  truly  touches  the  chords  of 
sympathy;  and  those  who  heard  Mr.  Clay  never  failed 
to  be  moved  by  it,  or  ever  afterward  forgot  the  impres- 


n6       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

sion.  All  his  efforts  were  made  for  practical  effect.  He 
never  spoke  merely  to  be  heard.  He  never  delivered  a 
Fourth-of-July  oration,  or  a  eulogy  on  an  occasion  like 
this."  Clay's  ruling  passion  he  declared  to  be  a  love 
of  liberty  and  right  for  their  own  sakes,  and  continued: 

He  ever  was  on  principle  and  in  feeling  opposed  to  slav- 
ery. The  very  earliest,  and  one  of  the  latest,  public  efforts 
of  his  life,  separated  by  a  period  of  more  than  fifty  years, 
were  both  made  in  favor  of  gradual  emancipation.  He  did 
not  perceive  that  on  a  question  of  human  right  the  negroes 
were  to  be  excepted  from  the  human  race.  And  yet  Mr. 
Clay  was  the  owner  of  slaves.  Cast  into  life  when  slavery 
was  already  widely  spread  and  deeply  seated,  he  did  not 
perceive,  as  I  think  no  wise  man  has  perceived,  how  it  could 
be  at  once  eradicated  without  producing  a  greater  evil  even 
to  the  cause  of  human  liberty  itself.  .  .  .  Those  who 
would  shiver  into  fragments  the  union  of  these  State,  tear 
to  tatters  its  now-venerated  Constitution,  and  even  burn  the 
last  copy  of  the  Bible,  rather  than  slavery  should  continue  a 
single  hour,  together  with  all  their  more  halting  sympa- 
thizers, have  received,  and  are  receiving,  their  just  execra- 
tion ;  and  the  name  and  opinions  and  influence  of  Mr.  Clay 
are  fully  and,  as  I  trust,  effectually  and  enduringly  arrayed 
against  them.  But  I  would  also,  if  I  could,  array  his  name, 
opinions  and  influence  against  the  opposite  extreme  — 
against  a  few  but  an  increasing  number  of  men  who,  for 
the  sake  of  perpetuating  slavery,  are  beginning  to  assail  and 
to  ridicule  the  white  man's  charter  of  freedom,  the  declara- 
tion that  "  all  men  are  created  free  and  equal." 

Some  quotations  made  in  this  address  are  specially 
noteworthy  —  one,  for  instance,  from  Jefferson,  includ- 
ing the  famous  passage  relating  to  the  Missouri  con- 
flict of  1820:  "  But  this  momentous  question,  like  a 
fire-bell  in  the  night,  awakened  and  filled  me  with 
terror.  I  considered  it  at  once  as  the  knell  of  the 
Union.     It  is  hushed,  indeed,  for  the  moment.     But 


EULOGY  ON  CLAY.  117 

this  is  a  reprieve  only,  not  a  final  sentence."  Remem- 
ber that  this  was  recalled  here,  in  the  midst  of  the  can- 
vass of  1852,  in  which  the  two  great  parties  had  declared 
Clay's  last  compromise  a  "  final  settlement."  We  may 
note  also,  in  the  same  quotation,  Jefferson's  avowal  that 
the  surrender  of  slave  property  "  would  not  cost  him  a 
second  thought  if  emancipation  and  expatriation  could 
be  effected,  and  gradually  and  with  due  sacrifices,  as  he 
thought  it  might  be."  Another  quotation  was  from  a 
speech  of  Clay  himself,  in  1827,  favoring  colonization. 
Lincoln's  concluding  words,  whatever  their  impres- 
sion on  those  who  heard  or  read  them  at  the  time,  will 
not  lack  appreciation  to-day: 

This  suggestion  of  the  possible  ultimate  redemption  of 
the  African  race  and  African  continent  was  made  twenty- 
five  years  ago.  Every  succeeding  year  has  added  strength 
to  the  hope  of  its  realization.  May  it  indeed  be  realized. 
Pharaoh's  country  was  cursed  with  plagues,  and  his  hosts 
were  lost  in  the  Red  Sea  for  striving  to  retain  a  captive 
people  who  had  already  served  them  more  than  four  hun- 
dred years.     May  like  disasters  never  befall  us ! 

Our  country  is  prosperous  and  powerful;  but  could  it 
have  been  quite  all  it  has  been,  and  is,  and  is  to  be,  without 
Henry  Clay?  Such  a  man  the  times  have  demanded,  and 
such  in  the  providence  of  God  was  given  us.  But  he  is  gone. 
Let  us  strive  to  deserve,  as  far  as  mortals  may,  the  con- 
tinued care  of  divine  Providence,  trusting  that  in  future 
national  emergencies  He  will  not  fail  to  provide  us  the  in- 
struments of  safety  and  security. 

In  1853  suit  was  brought  in  McLean  County  for 
the  collection  of  taxes  assessed  upon  the  Illinois  Cen- 
tral Railway  —  a  test  case,  which  was  to  decide  the 
validity  of  a  statute  exempting  that  corporate  property 
from  taxation  in  the  several  counties  through  which  the 


n8       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

railway  passes.  Lincoln  was  counsel  for  the  company, 
and  won  the  case.  It  was  taken  up  to  the  State  Supreme 
Court  on  appeal,  twice  argued  there,  and  the  decision  of 
the  lower  court  affirmed  in  1855.  The  amount  directly 
and  indirectly  involved,  of  course,  was  large.  He  asked 
what  would  now  be  thought  a  quite  moderate  fee,  but 
there  was  higgling  about  its  payment.  If  we  may  trust 
the  recollection  of  Mr.  Herndon,  the  original  account — 
exclusive  of  $250  received  as  a  retainer  —  was  for  only 
$2,000;  and  he  further  says:  "  The  official  to  whom  he 
was  referred  —  supposed  to  have  been  the  Superintend- 
ent, George  B.  McClellan,  who  afterward  became  the 
eminent  General  —  looking  at  the  bill,  expressed  great 
surprise.  *  Why,  sir,'  he  exclaimed,  '  this  is  as  much 
as  Daniel  Webster  himself  would  have  charged.  We 
can  not  allow  such  a  claim/  '  Several  attorneys  with 
whom  Lincoln  advised  "  induced  him  to  increase  the 
demand  to  $5,000  and  to  bring  suit."  Judgment  was 
given  in  his  favor,  and  the  amount  was  "promptly  paid." 
As  to  the  "  supposed  "  official,  however,  Mr.  Hern- 
don gave  too  free  rein  to  conjecture.  An  alibi  is  easily 
proved  for  General  McClellan,  who  was  in  Europe  in 
1855,  and  did  not  retire  from  the  army  until  1857,  in 
which  year  began  his  connection  with  the  Illinois  Cen- 
tral Railway,  of  which  he  was  at  first  chief  engineer,  and 
afterward  vice-president.  It  was  during  the  time  of  his 
official  connection  with  this  road  that  McClellan  first 
knew  Lincoln,  as  stated  by  the  General  in  his  "  Own 
Story."  *     On  more  than  one  occasion  they  met  at  some 


*"  Long  before  the  war,  when  Vice  President  of  the  Illinois 
Central  Railroad  Company,  I  knew  Mr.  Lincoln,  for  he  was  one 
of  the  counsel  of  the  company."  (P.  162.)  On  page  29  of  the 
same  work  McClellan  states  that  he  resigned  his  "  commission  as 
a  captain  of  cavalry  in  Januarj',  1857." 


RAILWAY  AND  REAPER  CASES.        119 

place  on  the  railway  line  where  Lincoln  was  attending 
court;  and  while  the  future  General  does  not  appear  to 
have  been  among  the  most  sympathetic  admirers  of  the 
many  anecdotes  to  which,  as  he  says,  he  was  a  listener 
at  such  times,  these  earliest  relations  were  in  no  degree 
unfriendly. 

It  was  somewhat  otherwise  with  the  beginning  of 
Lincoln's  acquaintance  with  Edwin  M.  Stanton.  They 
iirst  met  as  associate  attorneys  in  a  memorable  patent 
case.  Most  of  Lincoln's  Illinois  biographers  give  an 
erroneous  date  to  this  event,*  which  Mr.  Arnold  states 
correctly  as  in  1855,  giving*  tne  proper  reference  to 
McLean's  Reports.  The  record  shows  that  a  bill  in 
chancery,  filed  by  Cyrus  H.  McCormick,  complaining 
of  an  infringement  of  patent  by  John  H.  Manny  and 
others,  came  up  for  hearing  in  Chicago  at  the  July  term 
(1855)  in  the  Circuit  Court  of  the  United  States  for  the 
Northern  District  of  Illinois,  before  Justice  McLean  and 
Judge  Drummond.  In  the  taking  of  testimony,  Mr. 
Manny  employed  Mr.  P.  H.  Watson  (afterward  Assist- 
ant Secretary  of  War),  a  prominent  attorney  in  patent 
cases,  who  had  intimate  relations  with  Mr.  Stanton. 
The  depositions  taken  were  sent  to  both  Lincoln  and 
Stanton,  as  directed  by  Mr.  Manny,  whose  extensive 
manufactory  of  reapers  was  at  Rockford,  Illinois;  and 
both  received  retainers,  with  the  understanding  that 
they  were  to  prepare  to  argue  the  case  in  court.  An- 
other attorney,  Mr.  George  Harding,  of  Philadelphia, 
especially  skilled  in  presenting  the  mechanical  details 
involved  in  such  a  suit,  was  also  employed.  Mr.  Stan- 
ton had  already  an  established  reputation  in  this  class 

*Herndon  says  1857;  Lamon  ("Recollections"),  1858;  Stod- 
dard, 1859;  etc. 


120       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

of  practice,  with  which  Lincoln  was  little  familiar,  and 
both  stood  on  the  same  footing  as  to  the  circumstances 
of  their  engagement.  Mr.  McCormick's  attorneys  were 
Hon.  Reverdy  Johnson  and  Mr.  E.  N.  Dickinson  —  the 
latter's  part  being  relatively  the  same  as  Mr.  Harding's. 

Lincoln  had  carefully  prepared  for  the  trial,  his 
argument  being  written  out  in  full.  He  had  the  pop- 
ular side,  which  seemed  to  him  the  equitable  one;  and 
he  was  never  more  ambitious  to  acquit  himself  well 
than  in  the  expected  forensic  contest  with  so  eminent 
a  lawyer  as  Mr.  Johnson.  Arguments  having  been  lim- 
ited to  two  in  number  on  each  side,  and  Mr.  Harding 
being  deemed  indispensable,  for  the  reason  just  stated, 
it  was  settled  that  Stanton  should  speak  instead  of 
Lincoln.  It  is  not  true  (as  has  been  stated*)  that  he 
thereupon  abandoned  the  case,  returned  his  retaining 
fee,  and  went  home.  Quite  to  the  contrary,  he  put  his 
written  argument  in  the  hands  of  Mr.  Harding  for  the 
benefit  of  whatever  suggestion  it  might  give  him,  and 
remained  until  the  close,  taking  a  lively  interest  in  the 
case.  He  kept  his  retainer  ($500).  and  received  the 
same  additional  compensation  ($2,000)  as  if  he  had 
addressed  the  court.  The  case  was  argued  at  Cincin- 
nati before  Judge  McLean,  who  dismissed  the  suit  at 
the  cost  of  the  complainant. 

When  retained  in  this  case,  Lincoln  had  lately  been 
the  anti-Nebraska  candidate  for  the  Senatorship  to  suc- 
ceed Shields,  after  the  canvass  of  1854,  and  had  barely 
missed  the  place,  which  was  given  to  Judge  Trumbull. 
To  this  depressing  defeat  was  now  added  the  disappoint^ 
ment  of  his  hope  to  gain  new  professional  laurels  in, 


*In  Lamon's  "  Recollections. 


RAILWAY  AND  REAPER  CASES.        121 

an  encounter  with  a  man  of  high  national  reputation  as 
a  lawyer  and  a  statesman.  The  brusque  ways  of  Stan- 
ton —  a  Democrat  then  in  sympathy  with  Douglas 
and  Shields  —  in  this  their  first  intercourse  were  no 
doubt  somewhat  exasperating.  Disparaging  remarks 
about  Lincoln  —  either  overheard  or  reported  to  the 
latter  by  a  tale-bearer  —  may  have  been  added,  as  has 
been  alleged;  but  this  was  the  extent  of  Stanton's 
offending.  There  was  no  stir  made  about  the  matter  by 
any  one,  and  of  course  no  complaint  that  was  expected 
to  go  beyond  the  domestic  circle  in  which  this  was  a 
subject  of  conversation.* 

Between  a  case  involving  perhaps  millions  of  dollars 
and  the  interests  of  agricultural  producers  throughout 
the  nation,  before  this  high  Federal  court,  and  a  simple 
case  of  assault  and  battery  before  a  justice  of  the  peace, 
there  is  a  contrast  sufficiently  striking,  yet  one  which 
illustrates  the  range  of  Lincoln's  actual  practice  at  this 
time.  Only  the  week  before,  as  stated  by  the  late  Judge 
Dickson,  Lincoln  had  been  counsel  in  a  case  of  which 
he  gave  this  account: 

I  was  retained  in  the  defense  of  a  man  charged  before  a 
justice  of  the  peace  with  assault  and  battery.  It  was  in  the 
country,  and  when  I  got  to  the  place  of  trial  I  found  the 
whole  neighborhood  excited,  and  the  feeling  was  strong 
against  my  client.  I  saw  the  only  way  was  to  get  up  a  laugh 
and  get  the  people  in  good  humor.  It  turned  out  that  the 
prosecuting  witness  was  talkative ;  he  described  the  fight  at 
great  length ;  how  they  had  fought  over  a  field,  now  by  the 
barn,  again  down  to  the  creek,  and  over  it,  and  so  on.  I 
asked  him  on  cross-examination  how  large  that  field  was ; 


*While  in  Cincinnati  on  this  occasion  he  was  a  guest  of  Judge 
W.  M.  Dickson,  whose  wife  was  a  first  cousin  of  Mrs.  Lincoln. 


122       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

he  said  it  was  ten  acres ;  he  knew  it  was,  for  he  and  some 
one  else  had  stepped  it  off  with  a  pole.  "  Well,  then,"  I 
inquired,  "  was  not  that  the  smallest  crap  of  a  fight  you 
have  ever  seen  raised  off  of  ten  acres  ?"  The  hit  took.  The 
laughter  was  uproarious,  and  in  half  an  hour  the  prosecuting 
witness  was  retreating  amid  the  jeers  of  the  crowd. 

A  little  later  this  mysteriously  constituted  man  of 
the  forum  and  the  hustings  would  be  found  doing  advo- 
cate's work  in  the  famous  Rock  Island  bridge  case,  and 
making  an  argument  which  entitled  him  to  be  classed 
in  the  highest  grade  of  his  profession. 

Had  he  stuck  to  the  law  exclusively  henceforward, 
Lincoln  would  have  gained  a  moderate  fortune  and 
more  than  a  local  celebrity.  Probably  he  would  have 
been  as  well  and  as  long  remembered  as  any  eminent 
lawyer  of  his  time.  Ultimately  he  might  have  been 
raised  to  the  bench,  for  which  he  had  some  special 
qualifications.  But  did  there  not  yet  live,  beneath  the 
embers  of  disappointed  hope  and  endeavor,  something 
of  the  fire  of  political  ambition?  If  so,  its  revival  needed 
but  opportunity;  and  the  opportunity  came  unsought 
and  unexpected. 


CHAPTER  X. 

1854. 

The  Great  Surprise  —  Nebraska. 

When  the  exclusion  of  slavery  from  the  annexed 
Mexican  territory  and  the  suppression  of  slave-market- 
ing in  the  District  of  Columbia  were  both  demanded  by 
a  majority  vote  in  the  popular  branch  of  the  Thirtieth 
Congress,  Calhoun  and  his  sect  at  once  set  about  kind- 
ling a  new  conflagration  in  the  South.  With  great  dif- 
ficulty and  after  repeated  failures  the  Compromise  meas- 
ures of  1850  were  carried  through  Congress  —  admit- 
ting California  as  a  free  State;  organizing  the  Territo- 
ries of  New  Mexico  and  Utah  without  the  exclusion 
of  slavery;  suppressing  slave -trading  in  the  District  of 
Columbia;  giving  the  South  a  new  law  for  reclaiming 
fugitive  slaves,  and  granting  ten  million  dollars  to 
Texas  to  quiet  her  claim  to  certain  disputed  territory. 
The  followers  of  Calhoun  were  especially  exasperated 
that  California,  the  most  essential  part  of  the  acquisition 
from  Mexico,  had  added  its  weight  to  the  scale  it  was 
not  meant  for. 

Jefferson  Davis,  after  the  admission  of  California, 
resigned  his  seat  in  the  Senate  to  run  for  Governor  of 
Mississippi  on  a  "  Resistance  "  platform.  The  mode  of 
resistance  proposed  was  not  distinctly  defined  in  public, 
but  it  is  certain  that  the  "  State  Rights  associations," 

(123) 


124       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

whose  candidate  Davis  was,  were  straining  every  nerve 
to  precipitate  secession.  Ex-Senator  Henry  S.  Foote 
canvassed  the  State  as  the  "  Union  "  candidate  —  sus- 
taining the  compromise  —  in  opposition  to  Davis,  and 
beat  him,  though  by  only  a  slender  majority.  On  this 
event,  it  may  be,  depended  the  postponement,  for  ten 
years,  of  a  revolt  already  determined  on.  The  South- 
ern Democrats,  for  the  moment  divided  into  two  seg- 
ments, were  presently  rejoicing  in  the  election  of  Frank- 
lin Pierce,  who  made  Jefferson  Davis  a  member  of  his 
Cabinet.  "Peace,  peace!"  was  the  cry;  and  there 
seemed  to  be  peace. 

The  unorganized  remainder  of  the  Louisiana  Pur- 
chase, lying  directly  west  of  Missouri  and  Iowa,  and 
north  of  the  Missouri  Compromise  line,  was  a  vast 
region,  chiefly  defined  on  the  old  maps  as  the  "  Great 
American  Desert."  On  its  eastern  border  there  were 
a  few  Indian  reservations;  and  in  time  its  desolateness 
was  disclosed  rather  than  relieved  by  two  trails  of 
traffic  and  emigration,  one  leading  to  Santa  Fe,  in  New 
Mexico,  and  the  other  across  the  Rocky  Mountains 
by  the  South  Pass.  These  thoroughfares  the  Mexican 
war  and  the  Mexican  acquisitions  had  given  increased 
consequence;  and  the  settlers  on  the  Missouri  border 
were  already  coveting  the  Indian  lands  near  them.  So 
it  happened  that  soon  after  the  admission  of  California 
as  a  State  and  the  organization  of  New  Mexico  as  a 
Territory,  Congress  was  petitioned  to  create  a  territo- 
rial government  for  this  so-called  "Platte  country."  In 
December,  1852,  a  bill  responsive  to  this  prayer  was 
introduced  in  the  House,  and  in  the  February  following 


THE  "  NEBRASKA  "  SURPRISE.  125 

was  favorably  reported,  with  the  recommendation  that 
the  name  of  the  territory  be  changed  from  "Platte"  to 
Nebraska,  which  was  agreed  to.  Eight  days  after  (Feb- 
ruary 10th)  the  bill  was  passed,  98  to  43;  and  the  next 
day  it  was  referred  in  the  Senate  to  the  Committee  on 
Territories,  of  which  Douglas  was  chairman. 

Senator  Douglas  had  lately  been  elected  for  a  sec- 
ond term.  In  the  previous  year  he  had  figured  rather 
prominently  in  the  national  convention  of  his  party  as  a 
Presidential  candidate  —  the  main  contest  at  the  outset 
being  between  Messrs.  Cass  and  Buchanan;  and  had  the 
"Young  Democracy"  been  less  eager  to  thrust  him  for- 
ward as  against  these  two  veterans,  there  is  no  mani- 
fest reason  why  the  choice  might  not  have  alighted  on 
Douglas  instead  of  the  unconspicuous  ex-Senator  from 
New  Hampshire.  As  it  was,  Douglas  had  much  to 
hope  for  at  the  next  trial.  He  had  never  given  the 
South  offense,  and  was  little  disposed  to  do  so  now. 
Six  days  after  its  reference  he  reported  back  the 
Nebraska  bill  without  amendment,  recommending  its 
passage.  The  status  of  the  new  territory  as  to  slavery, 
as  the  bill  then  stood,  was  clearly  defined  by  the  Mis- 
souri Compromise.  On  the  2d  of  March  he  asked  that 
the  bill  be  taken  up  for  consideration.  Only  twenty 
Senators  voted  in  the  affirmative,  while  twenty-five,  all 
Southern,  voted  against  his  motion.  He  tried  again  on 
the  next  and  last  day  of  the  session,  when  he  was  again 
defeated,  by  a  vote  exclusively  Southern. 

Senator  Atchison,  of  Missouri,  had  vaguely  inti- 
mated some  exigency  requiring  prompt  action  in  nego- 
tiating with  the  Indians  just  across  the  border  of  his 
State  for  the  extinguishment  of  their  title  to  certain 


126       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

reservations;  and  some  of  his  constituents  were  impor- 
tuning him  to  favor  an  immediate  organization  of  the 
Platte  territory.  He  and  his  colleague  alone  among 
Southern  Senators  voted  for  present  action  on  the  bill; 
and  in  explanation  of  his  vote  he  spoke  significantly- 
enough,  though  a  little  darkly.  No  State  was  perhaps, 
he  said,  "  more  deeply  interested  in  this  question  than 
Missouri."  The  best,  if  not  the  largest  part  of  the  pro- 
posed territory,  and  "perhaps  the  only  portion  of  it  that 
in  half  a  century  will  become  a  State,  lies  immediately 
west  of  the  State  of  Missouri."  While  his  remarks  dis- 
closed clearly  enough  his  unwillingness  to  see  a  non- 
slaveholding  territory  organized  on  the  west  of  Mis- 
souri, was  he  not  as  yet  quite  innocent  of  even  a  tran- 
sient thought  that  it  would  be  practicable  to  annul 
the  restriction  by  direct  action  of  Congress?  He  more 
probably  counted  upon  its  easy  evasion  by  the  gradual 
and  quiet  expansion  of  slaveholding  communities  on  the 
western  border,  in  like  manner  as  slavery  had  spread 
into  the  free  soil  of  Texas  before  its  annexation.  If 
such  was  his  policy,  he  was  wiser  in  his  generation  — • 
or  at  least  more  cunning  —  than  those  who  ultimately 
chose  a  bolder  course. 

All  this  skirmishing  about  Nebraska  was  little  no- 
ticed outside  of  Washington.  It  produced  little  excite- 
ment even  there,  but  served  to  introduce  a  new  name, 
"  Nebraska,"  which  later  events  were  to  make  familiar. 

The  session  closed  and  President  Pierce  was  inaugu- 
rated. The  Senate  promptly  confirmed  his  chosen  Cab- 
inet officers,  of  whom  the  recent  "  Resistance "  can- 
didate for  Governor  of  Mississippi  was  a  leading  spirit. 
In  his  December  message  the  President  declared,  as  he 


THE  "  NEBRASKA  "  SURPRISE.  127 

had  done  in  his  inaugural  address,  that  during  his  term 
nothing  should  be  done  with  his  consent  to  reopen  the 
closed  agitation.  On  the  14th  of  December  Senator 
Dodge,  of  Iowa,  introduced  a  bill  for  the  organization 
of  the  Territory  of  Nebraska,  similar  in  terms  to  that  of 
the  previous  session.  Douglas  reported  it  back  from 
his  committee  —  this  time  with  amendments  —  on  the 
4th  of  January  (1854).  A  question  had  arisen  in  1850, 
said  the  report,  "  whether  slavery  was  prohibited  by  law 
in  the  country  acquired  from  Mexico,"  and  the  question 
was  disposed  of  by  leaving  the  issue  to  the  people  them- 
selves in  New  Mexico  and  Utah.  So,  too,  "  a  similar 
question"  had  now  arisen  concerning  "the  right  to  hold 
slaves  in  the  proposed  Territory  of  Nebraska  when  the 
Indian  laws  shall  be  withdrawn  and  the  country  thrown 
open  to  emigration  and  settlement."  Under  the  eighth 
section  of  the  Missouri  Act  of  March  6,  1820,  slavery 
in  the  territory  in  question  was  "forever  prohibited"; 
but,  "as  in  the  case  of  Mexican  law  in  New  Mexico 
and  Utah,  it  is  a  disputed  point  whether  slavery  is  pro- 
hibited in  the  Nebraska  country  by  valid  enactment. 
The  decision  of  this  question  involves  the  constitutional 
power  of  Congress  to  pass  laws  prescribing  and  regu- 
lating the  domestic  institutions  of  the  various  territo- 
ries of  the  Union."  Senator  Dixon,  of  Kentucky,  gave 
notice  that  when  the  bill  came  up  for  consideration,  he 
should  propose  an  amendment  annulling  the  said  eighth 
section  of  the  Missouri  Act,  as  applicable  to  Nebraska. 
This  met  the  issue  squarely.  On  motion  of  Douglas, 
the  bill  was  thereupon  recommitted,  and  a  week  later 
he  reported  a  substitute  creating  two  territories,  Kansas 
and  Nebraska,  and  declaring  the  Missouri  Compromise 


128        LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

restriction  "  inoperative."  This  proving  insufficient,  he 
added  the  words,  "  and  void,"  ending  all  Southern 
opposition. 

"  The  country  was  at  once  in  a  blaze."  The  mere 
proposition  of  repeal  seemed  a  sacrilege,  and  popular 
excitement  rose  to  a  pitch  unprecedented  even  in  1850. 
Douglas  had  not  taken  the  momentous  step  until  after 
consultation  with  President  Pierce,  who  gave  it  his 
approval,  and  pledged  the  power  of  his  administration 
in  its  support.     Mr.  Pierce  kept  this  promise. 

When  Douglas  asked  the  Senate  to  proceed  at  once 
to  the  consideration  of  the  bill  as  finally  amended,  Sen- 
ator Chase  objected,  asking  a  postponement  until  the 
following  week,  and  by  general  consent  the  30th  of 
January  was  fixed  for  opening  the  discussion.  Mean- 
while a  vigorous  Anti-Nebraska  manifesto,  signed  by 
Senators  Chase  and  Sumner,  and  by  other  members 
of  Congress,  was  sent  to  the  country.  Resolutions 
indignantly  condemning  the  proposed  action  were 
introduced  into  several  State  Legislatures  then  in  ses- 
sion, and  passed  with  emphasis  and  promptitude.  The 
press  of  the  free  States  was  never  more  terribly  earnest 
in  the  display  of  fiery  indignation.  The  whole  power  of 
the  administration,  of  which  Douglas  expected  so  much, 
was  far  from  sufficient  to  keep  in  line  the  rank  and  file 
of  the  Democratic  party.  On  the  other  hand,  Northern 
Whigs  —  by  no  means  excepting  those  who  had  been 
most  conservative  in  their  views  of  slavery  agitation  — 
disgusted  and  alienated  by  the  course  of  their  Southern 
fellow-partisans,  who  in  a  sectional  caucus  decided  to 
support  the  Nebraska  bill,  were  in  a  mood  to  welcome 


THE  "  NEBRASKA  "  SURPRISE.  129 

the  obviously  inevitable  advent  of  a  reorganization  of 
parties. 

On  the  30th  of  January,  when  the  question  came  up 
according  to  assignment  in  the  Senate,  Douglas,  having 
a  bitter  foretaste  of  what  was  coming,  angrily  arraigned 
Senator  Chase  and  his  associates  for  their  manifesto,  and 
used  all  his  ingenuity  in  defending  his  own  action.  The 
debate  was  prolonged,  deepening  the  impression  first 
made  upon  the  public  mind.  The  "  Nebraska  bill " 
passed  the  Senate  on  the  3d  day  of  March.  It  was 
not  at  once  acted  on  in  the  House.  Democratic  mem- 
bers from  the  free  States  found  it  perilous  —  with  an 
election  just  at  hand  —  to  stand  in  party  line.  By  a 
vote  of  113  to  100,  on  the  final  test,  the  consummation 
was  reached  on  the  26th  of  May. 

At  once  began  the  struggle,  which  lasted  for  years, 
between  the  friends  and  foes  of  slavery  for  the  control 
of  the  Territory  of  Kansas. 


CHAPTER  XL 

1854-1855. 

First  "Anti-Nebraska"   Campaign  —  Lincoln  and  Douglas 

on  the  Stump  —  Trumbull,  and  Not  Lincoln, 

Elected  Senator. 

Returning  home  late  in  August,  Douglas  encoun- 
tered a  storm  of  popular  wrath  at  Chicago,  where  he 
attempted  to  speak.  For  the  first  time  in  his  life  he 
found  himself  facing  a  turbulent  throng,  styled  by  him 
a  mob,  which  determined  that  he  should  not  be  heard, 
and  which  would  not  be  cowed.  There  was  open  and 
serious  revolt  in  the  party  he  had  hitherto  ruled  with- 
out question.  Later  he  had  willing  auditors  in  minor 
towns;  and  on  the  4th  of  October,  at  the  State  fair  in 
Springfield,  dividing  time  with  Lincoln  by  agreement, 
he  addressed  a  multitude  gathered  from  all  parts  of 
Illinois.  It  was  now  within  four  weeks  of  the  election 
at  which  Congressional  representatives  and  members  of 
the  State  Legislature  were  to  be  chosen.  A  Senator- 
ship  was  also  at  stake,  as  the  term  of  General  Shields 
was  about  expiring.  Usually  aggressive  and  auda- 
cious, it  was  remarked  that  Douglas  was  different  in 
his  manner  on  this  occasion.  He  sought  to  conciliate, 
and  his  words  implied  a  pervading  memory  of  the  Chi- 
cago storm.  Yet  it  was  Douglas  who  spoke  —  always 
able,  wary,  and  plausible.     Lincoln  was  relied  upon  by 

( 130 ) 


"ANTI-NEBRASKA  "  CAMPAIGN.         131 

the  Anti-Nebraskans,  Whig  and  Democratic,  as  their 
most  effective  champion,  and  his  speech  in  turn  was 
so  masterly  as  to  surprise  both  friends  and  opponents. 
Hearts  and  voices  went  with  him,  and  when  he  closed, 
the  applause  was  so  general  and  so  tumultuous  that 
Douglas  could  have  enjoyed  himself  little  better  here 
than  at  his  home  reception  a  month  before.  He  rose 
for  a  rejoinder,  but  his  remarks  were  brief.  Twilight 
being  at  hand,  the  meeting  temporarily  adjourned,  with 
the  understanding  that  he  would  speak  more  at  length 
in  the  evening,  but  this  he  failed  to  do,  and  his  absence 
was  a  subject  for  disparaging  comment. 

Douglas  spoke  three  hours  at  Peoria  on  the  16th 
of  October,  and  was  followed  by  Lincoln  in  what  he 
regarded  in  later  years  as  his  best  speech.  As  written 
out  by  him  and  published  in  the  Springfield  Journal,  it 
probably  included  a  reproduction,  in  the  main,  of  his 
speech  at  the  State  fair. 

Announcing  his  subject  as  "  the  repeal  of  the  Mis- 
souri Compromise  and  the  propriety  of  its  restoration," 
he  insisted  that  distinction  be  made  and  kept  between 
existing  domestic  slavery  and  its  extension.  To  aid  "a 
clear  understanding  of  what  the  Missouri  Compromise 
was,"  he  gave  historic  details,  beginning  with  the  pass- 
age of  the  Ordinance  of  1787,  which  shut  the  institu- 
tion out  from  five  great  central  States  of  the  West. 
"  Thus,"  he  said,  "  with  the  author  of  the  Declaration 
of  Independence  the  policy  of  prohibiting  slavery  in 
new  territory  began.  Thus,  away  back  of  the  Consti- 
tution, in  the  pure,  fresh,  free  breath  of  the  Revolu- 
tion, the  State  of  Virginia  and  the  National  Congress 
put  that  policy  in  practice.     Thus,  through  more  than 


i32        LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

sixty  of  the  best  years  of  the  Republic,  did  that  policy 
steadily  work  to  its  great  and  beneficial  end.  And 
thus,  in  those  five  States  and  five  millions  of  free, 
enterprising  people,  we  have  before  us  the  rich  fruits  of 
this  policy.  But  now  new  light  breaks  upon  us.  .  .  . 
We  find  even  some  men  who  drew  their  first  breath,  and 
every  other  breath  of  their  lives,  under  this  very  restric- 
tion, now  live  in  dread  of  absolute  suffocation  if  they 
should  be  restricted  in  the  sacred  right  of  taking  slaves 
to  Nebraska.  That  perfect  liberty  they  sigh  for  —  the 
liberty  of  making  slaves  of  other  people  —  Jefferson 
never  thought  of;  their  own  fathers  never  thought  of; 
they  never  thought  of  themselves  a  year  ago." 

He  then  spoke  of  the  territory  acquired  by  the 
Louisiana  Purchase,  in  1803,  and  the  Missouri  contro- 
versy, "  the  first  great  slavery  agitation  in  the  nation," 
during  which  "  threats  of  breaking  up  the  Union  were 
freely  made,  and  the  ablest  public  men  of  the  day  became 
seriously  alarmed" —  a  controversy  quieted  at  length  by 
the  act  approved  March  6,  1820,  "  providing  that  Mis- 
souri might  come  into  the  Union  with  slavery,  but  that 
in  all  the  remaining  part  of  the  territory  purchased  of 
France  which  lies  north  of  thirty-six  degrees  and  thirty 
minutes  north  latitude  slavery  should  never  be  permit- 
ted. This  provision  of  law  is  the  Missouri  Compromise. 
.  .  .  It  directly  applied  to  Iowa,  Minnesota,  and  the 
present  bone  of  contention,  Kansas  and  Nebraska." 
After  noticing  the  controversy  following  the  acquisition 
of  Mexican  territory,  and  stating  the  terms  of  the  Com- 
promise of  1850,  he  gave  an  account  of  the  "Nebraska" 
legislation,  which  declared  the  Missouri  Compromise 
"  inoperative  and  void  "  —  "  so  that  the  people  who  go 


PEORIA  SPEECH.  133 

and  settle  in  Nebraska  and  Kansas  may  establish  slavery 
or  exclude  it,  as  they  may  see  fit."    Continuing,  he  said: 

This  declared  indifference,  but,  as  I  must  think,  real  zeal 
folr  the  spread  of  slavery,  I  can  not  but  hate.  I  hate  it 
because  of  the  monstrous  injustice  of  slavery  itself;  I  hate 
it  because  it  deprives  our  republican  example  of  its  just  in- 
fluence in  the  world ;  enables  the  enemies  of  free  institutions 
with  plausibility  to  taunt  us  as  hypocrites ;  causes  the  real 
friends  of  freedom  to  doubt  our  sincerity ;  and  especially 
because  it  forces  so  many  really  good  men  among  ourselves 
into  an  open  war  with  the  very  fundamental  principles  of 
civil  liberty,  criticising  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  and 
insisting  that  there  is  no  right  principle  of  action  but  self- 
interest.    .    .    . 

I  think  I  have  no  prejudice  against  the  Southern  people. 
They  are  just  what  we  would  be  in  their  situation.  If  slav- 
ery did  not  now  exist  among  them,  they  would  not  introduce 
it.  If  it  did  now  exist  among  us,  we  should  not  instantly 
give  it  up.  This  I  believe  of  the  masses  North  and  South. 
Doubtless  there  are  individuals,  on  both  sides,  who  would 
not  hold  slaves  under  any  circumstances,  and  others  who 
would  gladly  introduce  slavery  anew,  if  it  were  out  of  exist- 
ence. We  know  that  some  Southern  men  do  free  their 
slaves,  go  North,  and  become  tip-top  Abolitionists ;  while 
some  Northern  ones  go  South,  and  become  most  cruel  slave- 
masters.  When  the  Southern  people  tell  us  they  are  no 
more  responsible  for  the  origin  of  slavery  than  we  are,  I 
acknowledge  the  fact.  When  it  is  said  that  the  institution 
exists,  and  that  it  is  very  difficult  to  get  rid  of  it  in  any  satis- 
factory way,  I  can  understand  and  appreciate  the  saying. 
I  surely  will  not  blame  them  for  not  doing  what  I  should 
not  know  how  to  do  myself.  If  all  earthly  power  were  given 
me,  I  should  not  know  what  to  do,  as  to  the  existing  insti- 
tution. My  first  impulse  would  be  to  free  all  the  slaves,  and 
send  them  to  Liberia  —  to  their  own  native  land.  But  a 
few  moments'  reflection  would  convince  me  that  whatever 
of  high  hope  (as  I  think  there  is)  there  may  be  in  this  in 
the  long  run,  its  sudden  execution  is  impossible.  .  .  . 
What  next?  Free  them,  and  make  them  politically  and  so- 
cially our  equals?    My  own  feelings  will  not  admit  of  this j 


i34        LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

and  if  mine  would,  we  well  know  that  those  of  the  great 
mass  of  white  people  will  not.  Whether  this  feeling  accords 
with  justice  and  sound  judgment,  is  not  the  sole  question, 
if  indeed  it  is  any  part  of  it.  A  universal  feeling,  whether 
well  or  ill  founded,  can  not  be  safely  disregarded.  We  can 
not,  then,  make  them  equals.  It  does  seem  to  me  that  sys- 
tems of  gradual  emancipation  might  be  adopted;  but  for 
their  tardiness  in  this,  I  will  not  undertake  to  judge  our 
brethren  of  the  South. 

When  they  remind  us  of  their  constitutional  rights,  I 
acknowledge  them,  not  grudgingly,  but  fully  and  fairly ;  and 
I  would  give  them  any  legislation  for  the  reclaiming  of 
their  fugitives,  which  should  not  in  its  stringency  be  more 
likely  to  carry  a  free  man  into  slavery  than  our  ordinary 
criminal  laws  are  to  hang  an  innocent  one. 

But  all  this,  to  my  judgment,  furnishes  no  more  excuse 
for  permitting  slavery  to  go  into  our  own  free  territory  than 
it  would  for  reviving  the  African  slave-trade  by  law.  The 
law  which  forbids  the  bringing  of  slaves  from  Africa,  and 
that  which  has  so  long  forbidden  the  taking  of  them  into 
Nebraska,  can  hardly  be  distinguished  on  any  moral  prin- 
ciple ;  and  the  repeal  of  the  former  could  find  quite  as  plaus- 
ible excuses  as  that  of  the  latter.    .    .    . 

Whether  slavery  shall  go  into  Nebraska,  or  other  new 
Territories,  is  not  a  matter  of  exclusive  concern  to  the  people 
who  may  go  there.  The  whole  nation  is  interested  that  the 
best  use  shall  be  made  of  these  Territories.  We  want  them 
for  the  homes  of  free  white  people.  This  they  can  not  be, 
to  any  considerable  extent,  if  slavery  shall  be  planted  within 
them.  Slave  States  are  places  for  poor  white  people  to 
remove  from,  not  to  remove  to.  New  free  States  are  the 
places  for  poor  people  to  go  to  and  better  their  condition. 
For  this  use  the  nation  needs  these  Territories. 

Still  further:  There  are  constitutional  relations  between 
the  slave  and  free  States  which  are  degrading  to  the  latter. 
We  are  under  legal  obligations  to  catch  and  return  their  run- 
away slaves  to  them  —  a  sort  of  dirty,  disagreeable  job 
which,  I  believe,  as  a  general  rule,  the  slaveholders  will  not 
perform  for  one  another.  Then  again :  In  the  control  of  the 
government  —  the  management  of  the  partnership  affairs 
—  they^  have  greatly  the  advantage  of  us.    .    .    .    The  slaves 


PEORIA  SPEECH.  135 

do  not  vote ;  they  are  only  counted  and  so  used  as  to  swell 
the  influence  of  the  white  people's  votes.  The  practical  effect 
of  this  is  more  aptly  shown  by  a  comparison  of  the  States  of 
South  Carolina  and  Maine.  South  Carolina  has  six  Repre- 
sentatives, and  so  has  Maine;  South  Carolina  eight  Presi- 
dential electors,  and  so  has  Maine.  .  .  .  But  how  are  they 
in  the  number  of  their  white  people?  Maine  has  581,813, 
while  South  Carolina  has  274,567 ;  Maine  has  twice  as  many 
as  South  Carolina,  and  32,679  over.  Thus  each  white  man 
in  South  Carolina  is  more  than  double  of  any  man  in  Maine. 
This  is  all  because  South  Carolina,  besides  her  free  people, 
has  384,984  slaves.  The  South  Carolinian  has  precisely  the 
same  advantage  over  the  white  man  in  every  other  free  State 
as  in  Maine.  He  is  more  than  the  double  of  any  one  of  us 
in  this  crowd.  .  .  .  This  principle  in  the  aggregate  gives 
the  slave  States  in  the  present  Congress  twenty  additional 
representatives,  being  seven  more  than  the  whole  majority 
by  which  they  passed  the  Nebraska  bill. 

Now,  all  this  is  manifestly  unfair ;  yet  I  do  not  mention 
it  to  complain  of  it,  in  so  far  as  it  is  already  settled.  It  is  in 
the  Constitution,  and  I  do  not,  for  that  cause  or  any  other 
cause,  propose  to  destroy,  or  alter,  or  disregard  the  Consti- 
tution. I  stand  to  it  fairly,  fully  and  firmly.  But  when  I 
am  told  I  must  leave  it  altogether  to  other  people  to  say 
whether  new  partners  are  to  be  bred  up  and  brought  into 
the  firm,  on  the  same  degrading  terms  against  me,  I  respect- 
fully demur.    .    .    . 

Finally,  I  insist  that  if  there  is  anything  which  it  is  the 
duty  of  the  whole  people  to  never  intrust  to  any  hands  but 
their  own,  that  thing  is  the  preservation  and  perpetuity  of 
their  own  liberties  and  institutions.  And  if  they  shall  think, 
as  I  do,  that  the  extension  of  slavery  endangers  them,  more 
than  any  or  all  other  causes,  how  recreant  to  themselves  if 
they  submit  the  question,  and  with  it  the  fate  of  their  coun- 
try, to  a  mere  handful  of  men,  bent  only  on  temporary  self- 
interest!    .    .    . 

But  Nebraska  is  urged  as  a  Union-saving  measure.  Well, 
I  too  go  for  saving  the  Union.  Much  as  I  hate  slavery,  I 
would  consent  to  the  extension  of  it  rather  than  see  the 
Union  dissolved,  just  as  I  would  consent  to  any  great  evil 
to  avoid  a  greater  one.     But  when  I  go  to  Union-saving,  I 


136       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

must  believe,  at  least,  that  the  means  I  employ  have  some 
adaptation  to  the  end.  To  my  mind,  Nebraska  has  no  such 
adaptation. 

"  It  hath  no  relish  of  salvation  in  it." 

It  is  an  aggravation,  rather,  of  the  only  thing  which  ever 
endangered  the  Union.  When  it  came  upon  us,  all  was  peace 
and  quiet.  The  nation  was  looking  to  the  forming  of  new 
bonds  of  union,  and  a  long  course  of  peace  and  prosperity 
seemed  to  lie  before  us.  In  the  whole  range  of  possibility, 
there  scarcely  appears  to  me  to  have  been  anything  out  of 
which  the  slavery  agitation  could  have  been  revived,  except 
the  very  project  of  repealing  the  Missouri  Compromise. 
Every  inch  of  territory  we  owned  already  had  a  definite  set- 
tlement of  the  slavery  question,  by  which  all  parties  were 
pledged  to  abide.  Indeed,  there  was  no  uninhabited  country 
on  the  continent  which  we  could  acquire,  if  we  except  some 
extreme  Northern  regions  which  are  wholly  out  of  the 
question.* 

In  this  state  of  affairs,  the  Genius  of  Discord  himself 
could  scarcely  have  invented  a  way  of  again  getting  us  by 
the  ears,  but  by  turning  back  and  destroying  the  peace  meas- 
ures of  the  past.  ...  It  could  not  but  be  expected  by  its 
author  that  it  would  be  looked  upon  as  a  measure  for  the 
extension  of  slavery,  aggravated  by  a  gross  breach  of  faith. 
Argue  as  you  will,  and  long  as  you  will,  this  is  the  naked 
front  and  aspect  of  the  measure.  And  in  this  aspect,  it  could 
not  but  produce  agitation. 

Slavery  is  founded  in  the  selfishness  of  man's  nature  — 
opposition  to  it,  in  his  love  of  justice.  These  principles  are 
in  eternal  antagonism ;  and  when  brought  into  collision  so 
fiercely  as  slavery-extension  brings  them,  shocks  and  throes 
and  convulsions  must  ceaselessly  follow.f  Repeal  the  Mis- 
souri Compromise  —  repeal  all  compromise  —  repeal  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  —  repeal  all  past  history  —  you 


*And  yet — then  least  of  all  in  Lincoln's  mind — remote  Alaska 
was  soon  to  be  ours! 

fThis  sentence  is  certainly  as  explicit  as  the  later  "house- 
divided  "  passage,  or  as  the  "  irrepressible  conflict "  of  Seward. 


PEORIA  SPEECH.  137 

still  can  not  repeal  human  nature.  It  still  will  be  the  abun- 
dance of  man's  heart  that  slavery-extension  is  wrong;  and 
out  of  the  abundance  of  his  heart  his  mouth  will  continue  to 
speak.    .    .    . 

Some  Yankees  in  the  East  are  sending  emigrants  to  Ne- 
braska to  exclude  slavery  from  it ;  and,  so  far  as  I  can  judge, 
they  expect  the  question  to  be  decided  by  voting  in  some 
way  or  other.  But  the  Missourians  are  awake,  too.  They 
are  within  a  stone's  throw  of  the  contested  ground.  They 
hold  meetings,  and  pass  resolutions  in  which  not  the  slightest 
allusion  to  voting  is  made.  They  resolve  that  slavery  already 
exists  in  the  Territory ;  that  more  shall  go  there ;  that  they, 
remaining  in  Missouri,  will  protect  it ;  and  that  Abolitionists 
shall  be  hung  or  driven  away.  Through  all  this,  bowie- 
knives  and  six-shooters  are  seen  plainly  enough ;  but  never 
a  glimpse  of  the  ballot-box.    .    .    . 

Could  there  be  a  more  apt  invention  to  bring  about  col- 
lision and  violence  on  the  slavery  question  than  this  Ne- 
braska project  is?  I  do  not  charge  or  believe  that  such  was 
intended  by  Congress ;  but  if  they  had  literally  formed  a 
ring,  and  placed  champions  within  it  to  fight  out  the  con- 
troversy, the  fight  could  be  no  more  likely  to  come  off  than 
it  is.  And  if  this  fight  should  begin,  is  it  likely  to  take  a 
very  peaceful  Union-saving  turn  ?  Will  not  the  first  drop  of 
blood  so  shed  be  the  real  knell  of  the  Union  ?    .    .    . 

I  particularly  object  to  the  new  position  which  the 
avowed  principle  of  this  Nebraska  law  gives  to  slavery  in 
the  body  politic.  .  .  .  Near  eighty  years  ago  we  began 
by  declaring  all  men  are  created  equal ;  but  now  from  that 
beginning  we  have  run  down  to  the  other  declaration  that 
for  some  men  to  enslave  others  is  a  "  sacred  right  of  self- 
government."  These  principles  can  not  stand  together. 
They  are  as  opposite  as  God  and  Mammon ;  and  whoever 
holds  to  the  one  must  despise  the  other.  ...  In  our 
greedy  chase  to  make  profit  of  the  negro,  let  us  beware  how 
we  "  cancel  and  tear  to  pieces  "  even  the  white  man's  charter 
of  freedom. 

Our  republican  robe  is  soiled  and  trailed  in  the  dust.  Let 
us  repurify  it.  .  .  .  Let  us  re-adopt  the  Declaration  of 
Independence,  and  with  it  the  practices  and  policy  which 
harmonize  with  it.    Let  North  and  South,  let  all  Americans, 


138        LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

let  all  lovers  of  liberty  everywhere  join  in  the  great  and 
good  work.  If  we  do  this,  we  shall  not  only  have  saved 
the  Union,  but  we  shall  have  so  saved  it  as  to  make  it  and 
keep  it  forever  worthy  of  the  saving.  We  shall  have  so 
saved  it  that  the  succeeding  millions  of  free,  happy  people, 
the  world  over,  shall  rise  up  and  call  us  blessed,  to  the  latest 
generation. 

The  year,  which  opened  with  the  proposed  repeal 
of  the  Missouri  restriction,  closed  with  a  divided  and 
defeated  Democratic  party.  The  powerful  organiza- 
tion, of  which  Douglas  was  master  and  manager  in  Illi- 
nois, was  now,  for  the  first  time,  broken  and  beaten.  It 
failed  to  secure  a  working  majority  in  the  Legislature, 
which  was  to  choose  a  Senator.  The  Whig  members 
desired  the  election  of  Lincoln,  to  whom,  as  the  leading 
champion  of  the  Anti-Nebraska  cause,  the  place  seemed 
to  be  due;  but  five  Democratic  members  opposed  to 
Shields  cast  their  votes  for  Judge  Lyman  Trumbull,  an 
Anti-Nebraska  Democrat,  on  the  first  ballot  in  joint 
assembly,  (February  8,  1855,)  so  that  Lincoln  received 
only  forty-five  votes,  fifty-one  being  necessary  to  a 
choice.  After  further  balloting,  with  a  gain  of  but 
two  for  Lincoln,  a  new  candidate  was  presented  on 
the  Democratic  side  (Lieutenant-Governor  Matteson), 
whose  defeat  seemed  possible  only  by  uniting  on  Trum- 
bull. Lincoln  promptly  advised  his  friends  accordingly 
— ■  effacing  himself  and  saving  the  cause. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

1855-1858. 

Anti-Nebraska  Coalition  —  Kansas  Conflict  -  -  Republican 
Party  Organized — Fremont  Beaten  by  Buchanan — Dred 
Scott  Decision  —  Utah  Rebellion  —  Cases  in  Court 

The  Anti-Nebraska  coalition  was  generally  suc- 
cessful in  the  elections  of  1855,  though  with  somewhat 
diminished  majorities.  Meanwhile  a  new  party,  pop- 
ularly called  Know-Nothings,  had  grown  into  promi- 
nence in  several  of  the  Southern  as  well  as  Northern 
States.  Its  National  Council  met  in  secret  session  at 
Philadelphia  in  June  of  this  year,  and  found  itself  hope- 
lessly divided  on  the  prevailing  subject  of  discord.  A 
break-up  occurred,  further  preparing  the  way  for  a 
"union  of  all  elements"  in  the  North  opposed  to  the 
Administration.  Lincoln  took  no  part  in  the  Know- 
Nothing  movement,  which  had,  however,  a  large  fol- 
lowing in  his  State.  In  some  other  parts  of  the  coun- 
try, and  particularly  in  Massachusetts,  it  had  completely 
revolutionized  politics,  carrying  everything  before  it. 
This  must  have  been  due  quite  as  much  to  the  efficacy 
of  its  secret  organization  as  to  its  ostensible  objects  — 
checking  foreign  influences  and  counteracting  the  com- 
pact power  of  naturalized  voters.  As  an  "American  " 
party  the  organization  was  kept  up  for  some  years 
longer  at  the  South,  but  in  the  North  it  soon  dwindled 
and  died. 

(139) 


i4o        LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

The  conflict  in  Kansas  had  gone  on  with  vigor. 
Andrew  H.  Reeder,  of  Pennsylvania,  the  first  Gov- 
ernor, took  the  helm  before  the  end  of  the  year  (1854), 
and  ordered  the  election  of  a  Legislature  and  of  a  dele- 
gate to  Congress  in  the  following  March.  The  pro- 
slavery  party  prevailed,  largely  through  the  votes  of 
Missourians  who  crossed  the  border  solely  to  deposit 
their  ballots,  and  through  fraudulent  returns.  The  Gov- 
ernor rejected  the  returned  members  in  six  districts  and 
ordered  new  elections  therein,  with  the  result  that  in 
nearly  every  instance  anti-slavery  men  were  chosen. 
These,  however,  were  unhesitatingly  voted  out  of  their 
seats  and  the  first  returned  members  voted  in. 

The  interesting  body  so  constituted  proceeded  to 
pass  bills  for  the  establishment  of  slavery  and  the  sup- 
pression of  Abolitionism.  Reeder  having  vetoed  cer- 
tain enactments  which  he  thought  to  be  atrocious,  they 
were  passed  over  his  veto,  and  the  Legislature  recip- 
rocated his  opposition  by  asking  President  Pierce  to 
remove  him.  The  request  was  granted  with  alacrity. 
Ex-Governor  Shannon,  of  Ohio,  succeeded  Governor 
Reeder  on  the  1st  of  September. 

There  was  no  more  intent  spectator  of  the  opening 
scenes  of  the  Kansas  drama  than  Lincoln.  Some  of  his 
reflections  on  the  occasion  appear  in  the  following  pass- 
ages of  a  letter  to  his  Kentucky  friend,  Speed  (August 
24,  1855): 

You  know  what  a  poor  correspondent  I  am.  Ever  since 
I  received  your  very  agreeable  letter  of  the  226.  of  May  I 
have  been  intending  to  write  you  in  answer  to  it.  You  sug- 
gest that  in  political  action  now  you  and  I  would  differ.  I 
suppose  we  would ;  not  quite  as  much,  however,  as  you  may 
think.    You  know  I  dislike  slavery,  and  you  fully  admit  the 


KANSAS  CONFLICT— CANVASS  OF  1856.   141 

abstract  wrong  of  it.  So  far  there  is  no  cause  of  difference. 
But  you  say  that  sooner  than  yield  your  legal  rights  to  the 
slave,  especially  at  the  bidding  of  those  who  are  not  them- 
selves interested,  you  would  see  the  Union  dissolved.  I  am 
not  aware  than  any  one  is  bidding  you  to  yield  that  right  — 
very  certainly  I  am  not.  I  leave  that  matter  entirely  to  your- 
self. I  also  acknowledge  your  rights  and  my  obligations 
under  the  Constitution  in  regard  to  slaves.  I  confess  I  hate 
to  see  the  poor  creatures  hunted  down,  and  caught  and 
carried  back  to  their  stripes  and  unrequited  toils ;  but  I  bite 
my  lip  and  keep  quiet. 

In  1 84 1  you  and  I  had  together  a  tedious  low-water  trip 
on  a  steamboat  from  Louisville  to  St.  Louis.  You  may 
remember,  as  I  well  do,  that  from  Louisville  to  the  mouth  of 
the  Ohio  there  were  on  board  ten  or  a  dozen  slaves  shackled 
together  with  irons.  That  sight  was  a  continued  torment  to 
me,  and  I  see  something  like  it  every  time  I  touch  the  Ohio, 
or  any  other  slave  border.  It  is  not  fair  for  you  to  assume 
that  I  have  no  interest  in  a  thing  which  has,  and  continually 
exercises,  the  power  of  making  me  miserable.  You  ought 
rather  to  appreciate  how  much  the  great  body  of  the  North- 
ern people  do  crucify  their  feelings,  in  order  to  maintain 
their  loyalty  to  the  Constitution  and  the  Union. 

I  do  oppose  the  extension  of  slavery  because  my  judg- 
ment and  feeling  so  prompt  me ;  but  I  am  under  no  obliga- 
tions to  the  contrary.  If  for  this  you  and  I  must  differ, 
differ  we  must.  You  say,  if  you  were  President,  you  would 
send  an  army,  and  hang  the  leaders  of  the  Missouri  outrages 
upon  the  Kansas  elections ;  still,  if  Kansas  fairly  votes  her- 
self a  slave  State,  she  must  be  admitted,  or  the  Union  must 
be  dissolved.  But  how  if  she  votes  herself  a  slave  State 
unfairly  —  that  is,  by  the  very  means  for  which  you  say  you 
would  hang  men?  .  .  .  You  think  Stringfellow  &  Co. 
ought  to  be  hung ;  and  yet,  at  the  next  Presidential  election, 
you  will  vote  for  the  exact  type  and  representative  of  String- 
fellow.  The  slave-breeders  and  slave-traders  are  a  small, 
odious  and  detested  class  among  you,  and  yet  in  politics  they 
dictate  the  course  of  all  of  you,  and  are  as  completely  your 
masters  as  you  are  the  master  of  your  own  negroes. 

You  inquire  where  I  now  stand.  That  is  a  disputed 
point.     I  think  I  am  a  Whig;  but  others  say  there  are  no 


142       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

Whigs,  and  that  I  am  an  Abolitionist.  When  I  was  at  Wash- 
ington I  voted  for  the  Wilmot  proviso  as  good  as  forty  times, 
and  I  never  heard  of  any  one  attempting  to  un-Whig  me 
for  that.  I  now  do  no  more  that  oppose  the  extension  of 
slavery.  I  am  not  a  Know-Nothing  —  that  is  certain.  How 
could  I  be  ?  How  can  any  one  who  abhors  the  oppression  of 
negroes  be  in  favor  of  degrading  classes  of  white  people? 
Our  progress  in  degeneracy  appears  to  me  to  be  pretty  rapid. 
As  a  nation  we  began  by  declaring  that  "  all  men  are  created 
equal."  We  now  practically  read  it,  "All  men  are  created 
equal  except  negroes."  When  the  Know-Nothings  get  con- 
trol, it  would  read,  "All  men  are  created  equal  except  ne- 
groes and  foreigners  and  Catholics."  When  it  comes  to  this 
I  should  prefer  emigrating  to  some  country  where  they  make 
no  pretense  of  loving  liberty  —  to  Russia,  for  instance, 
where  despotism  can  be  taken  pure,  and  without  the  base 
alloy  of  hypocrisy. 

Mary  will  probably  pass  a  day  or  two  in  Louisville  in 
October.  My  kindest  regards  to  Mrs.  Speed.  On  the  lead- 
ing subject  of  this  letter  I  have  more  of  her  sympathy  than 
I  have  of  yours ;  and  yet  let  me  say  I  am 

Your  friend  forever, 

A.  Lincoln. 

The  Free-State  men  in  Kansas,  in  mass  meeting 
at  Big  Springs,  soon  after  Governor  Shannon's  arrival, 
denounced  the  alleged  Legislature  as  a  fraud,  and  repu- 
diated all  its  works.  Consequently  they  did  not  partic- 
ipate in  the  election,  ordered  by  that  body  for  the  ist  of 
October,  for  the  choice  of  a  Delegate  to  Congress  —  as, 
in  fact,  it  would  seem  to  have  been  quite  useless  to  do. 
They  were  not  intending,  however,  to  submit  quietly  to 
the  yoke,  and  they  had  assembled  for  business.  They 
effected  a  party  organization,  and  took  measures  for  a 
convention,  which  met  at  Topeka  on  the  19th  of  Sep- 
tember. It  was  determined  that  a  Delegate  should  be 
voted  for  on  the  second  Tuesday  of  October.     Thus  it 


KANSAS  CONFLICT— CANVASS  OF  1856.    143 

happened  that  the  Slave-State  party  elected  John  W. 
Whitfield  (Indian  agent,  from  Tennessee)  as  Delegate 
on  one  day,  and  the  Free-State  party  the  week  after  — 
of  course  irregularly  —  elected  ex-Governor  Reeder, 
who  had  remained  in  the  Territory  after  being  super- 
seded. This  party  also  held  a  convention  to  frame  a 
State  Constitution,  at  Topeka,  on  the  23d  of  October. 
Under  the  Free-State  Constitution  so  framed,  admis- 
sion into  the  Union  was  to  be  sought.  It  had  been 
practically  a  condition  of  civil  war  from  the  first,  with 
actual  bloodshed,  as  well  as  bolts  and  counter-bolts  of 
legislation  and  convention,  and  continual  tumult.  As 
yet,  too,  there  had  been  but  the  beginning  of  sorrows. 
The  actual  settlers  who  wanted  a  Free-State  govern- 
ment were  now  greatly  in  the  majority,  but  their  adver- 
saries had  not  only  the  advantage  of  being  nearer  their 
base,  as  earlier  remarked  by  Lincoln,  but  also  of  having 
the  strong  arm  of  the  central  power  at  Washington  on 
their  side. 

The  Congress  which  met  in  December,  1855,  was 
without  a  Democratic  majority  in  the  lower  house. 
After  a  long  struggle,  Nathaniel  P.  Banks,  of  Massa- 
chusetts, Anti-Nebraska  and  American,  was  chosen 
Speaker.  A  committee  (Messrs.  W.  A.  Howard,  of 
Michigan,  John  Sherman,  of  Ohio,  and  Mordecai  Oli- 
ver, of  Missouri)  was  appointed  to  investigate  the  affairs 
of  Kansas.  The  voluminous  report  of  the  majority  of 
this  committee  figured  prominently  in  the  next  Presi- 
dential canvass.  Whitfield  took  his  seat  as  Delegate, 
and  held  it  to  the  end  of  that  Congress. 

Such  was  the  situation  when  a  preliminary  meeting 
of  delegates  from  the  free  States,  representing  those 


i44        LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

opposed  to  the  Administration  and  its  Kansas  policy, 
was  held  at  Pittsburg  on  Washington's  birthday,  1856, 
for  consultation  and  action  in  regard  to  the  organiza- 
tion of  a  consolidated  opposition  party.  This  conven- 
tion issued  an  address,  written  by  Mr.  Raymond,  of  the 
New  York  Times,  and  called  a  National  Convention  of 
the  "  Republican  "  party,  to  be  held  at  Philadelphia 
on  the  17th  of  June  following,  for  the  nomination  of 
candidates  for  President  and  Vice-President. 

The  first  Republican  State  Convention,  under  that 
name,  in  Illinois  was  held  at  Bloomington  on  the  29th 
of  May,  1856.  Lincoln  took  part  in  forming  the  new 
organization,  and  made  at  this  convention  an  earnest 
and  stimulating  speech,  of  which  there  was  but  a  brief 
report.  This  was  the  chief  event  of  the  occasion,  aside 
from  the  appointment  of  delegates  to  the  national 
convention  at  Philadelphia. 

The  Democratic  National  Convention  met  at  Cincin- 
nati on  the  2d  of  June,  and  nominated  James  Buchanan 
for  President  (Douglas  having  121  votes  and  Buchanan 
168  on  the  last  ballot)  and  John  C.  Breckinridge  for 
Vice-President.  At  Philadelphia,  the  Republicans  nom- 
inated Colonel  John  C.  Fremont  (who  had  359  votes, 
and  Justice  John  McLean  196,)  for  President,  and 
William  L.  Dayton  (who  had  259  votes,  and  Abraham 
Lincoln  no,)  for  Vice-President.  Lincoln  had  not 
been  a  candidate  for  the  place,  and  was  surprised  to 
learn  that  he  had  been  so  complimented.  The  Amer- 
ican party  nominated  Millard  Fillmore  for  President 
and  Andrew  J.  Donelson  for  Vice-President.  These 
candidates  were  indorsed  by  a  thin  national  convention 


KANSAS  CONFLICT— CANVASS  OF  1856.   145 

of  Whigs  at  Baltimore  in  September  —  Judge  Edward 
Bates,  of  Missouri,  presiding. 

It  has  been  reasonably  affirmed  that  Lincoln  would 
have  been  nominated  for  Governor  had  he  not  in  ad- 
vance declined.  Without  the  support  of  the  Ameri- 
cans, the  Republican  candidate  could  have  no  chance 
of  success,  and  this  co-operation  was  effected  on  the 
Governorship  by  the  nomination  of  Colonel  William  H. 
Bissell,  a  former  member  of  Congress,  who  had  served 
in  the  Mexican  War.  Lincoln,  again  on  the  electoral 
ticket,  took  a  leading  part  in  the  national  canvass  in 
Illinois.  Bissell  was  elected,  showing  a  majority  against 
Douglas  and  the  Administration,  but,  with  the  opposi- 
tion votes  divided  between  Fremont  and  Fillmore,  the 
electoral  vote  of  the  State  was  given  to  Buchanan. 

In  all  the  slave  States  except  Maryland  (which  voted 
for  Fillmore)  Democratic  electors  were  chosen,  and  also 
in  Pennsylvania,  New  Jersey,  Indiana,  Illinois,  and  Cali- 
fornia. All  the  other  States  voted  for  Fremont  and 
Dayton.  The  electoral  vote  stood:  For  Buchanan, 
174;  Fremont,  114;  Fillmore,  8.  The  popular  vote  was 
more  equally  divided,  Buchanan  receiving  1,838,169; 
Fremont,  1,341,264;  Fillmore,  874,534.  In  New  Jersey 
and  California,  as  well  as  in  Illinois,  the  Democrats  had 
only  a  plurality  of  votes.  Had  the  opposition  been  fully 
united  in  these  States,  there  would  have  been  twenty- 
two  electoral  votes  less  in  the  Buchanan  column,  which 
could  have  spared  but  three  more  without  leaving  the 
final  election  to  the  House  of  Representatives. 

James  Buchanan,  last  Democratic  President  of  the 
old  regime,  was  not  a  leader.     Solid,  not  brilliant,  by 


10 


146       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

persistence  and  constancy  in  the  course  marked  out  by 
his  party,  he  attained  late  in  life  its  highest  reward. 
Absence  as  Minister  to  England  during"  the  inception 
of  the  Nebraska-Kansas  strife  was  an  opportune  aid  to 
this  benign  result.  More  of  absence  or  less  of  leader- 
ship at  this  juncture  might  possibly  have  left  Douglas 
a  prospect  bright  in  comparison  with  that  of  his  aged 
competitor.  It  was  not  a  luxurious  heritage  of  power 
to  which  President  Buchanan  succeeded.  Civil  war  on 
a  limited  scale  was  prevailing  in  Kansas.  During  the 
late  canvass  he  had  made  fair  professions,  no  doubt 
heartily  enough  intending  what  he  said  when  he  prom- 
ised, if  elected,  to  maintain  an  equal  and  just  policy  in 
regard  to  Kansas.  His  party,  with  the  help  of  these 
assurances,  had  barely  succeeded  in  carrying  Pennsyl- 
vania and  Indiana  in  October  —  sufficient,  with  a  nearly 
unanimous  South,  to  insure  his  election  in  November. 
The  necessity  of  conciliating  support  in  the  North, 
however,  had  taken  him  farther  than  the  party  man- 
agement would  allow  in  practice.  Four  of  his  Cabinet 
officers  were  of  the  South:  Howell  Cobb,  of  Georgia, 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury;  John  B.  Floyd,  of  Virginia, 
Secretary  of  War;  Jacob  Thompson,  of  Mississippi,  Sec- 
retary of  the  Interior,  and  Aaron  V.  Brown,  of  Ten- 
nessee, Postmaster-General  —  all,  if  we  except  the  last, 
who  died  before  the  close  of  the  term,  Secessionists  at 
heart,  if  not  already  so  in  purpose.  The  three  remain- 
ing places  were  respectively  given  to  Lewis  Cass,  of 
Michigan,  Secretary  of  State;  Isaac  Toucey,  of  Con- 
necticut, Secretary  of  the  Navy,  and  Jeremiah  S.  Black, 
of  Pennsylvania,  Attorney-General. 

The  second  Governor  of  Kansas,  Mr.  Shannon,  sent 


KANSAS  CONFLICT— -BUCHANAN.       147 

by  President  Pierce,  had  been  recalled  by  him  in  a  few- 
months,  and  replaced  by  John  W.  Geary.  President 
Buchanan  put  a  distinguished  man  in  Geary's  place  — 
Robert  J.  Walker,  former  Secretary  of  the  Treasury, 
long  identified  with  the  South  as  a  Mississippian,  though 
born  in  Pennsylvania.  Under  his  auspices  a  conven- 
tion met  at  Lecompton  and  framed  a  State  Constitu- 
tion. The  people  were  asked  to  vote  (in  December, 
1857)  for  the  Constitution  "with  slavery"  or  "with- 
out slavery,"  but  not  allowed  to  reject  it  altogether. 
The  Free-State  men,  now  largely  in  the  majority,  refused 
to  participate  in  such  a  vote. 

Directly  after  Mr.  Buchanan's  inauguration,  the 
Dred  Scott  decision  —  determined  the  year  before,  and 
opinions  written  out  —  was  announced  by  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States,  Chief  Justice  Taney  speak- 
ing for  a  majority  of  the  court.  By  a  suggestive  coin- 
cidence of  dates,  this  case  had  come  before  the  highest 
court  in  the  same  month  (May,  1854)  that  the  Kansas- 
Nebraska  Act  was  approved  by  President  Pierce.  Dred 
Scott,  the  slave  of  an  army  surgeon  in  Missouri,  had 
been  taken  by  his  master  to  other  military  posts  — 
Rock  Island,  in  Iowa,  and  Fort  Snelling,  in  Minne- 
sota —  and  afterward  returned  with  him  to  Missouri. 
He  claimed  his  freedom,  on  the  ground  that  his  having 
been  taken  to  free  territory  emancipated  him.  The 
case  was  dismissed  for  want  of  jurisdiction  —  because 
the  suitor  was  not  a  "  citizen."  Judge  Taney  in  his 
opinion  gave  new  fuel  to  the  flame  by  his  construction 
of  the  Constitution  on  other  questions,  and  especially 
by  denying  to  Congress  any  power  to  exclude  slavery 
from  the  territories. 


148        LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

There  was  also  a  little  rebellion  farther  west  than 
Kansas  to  add  to  the  troubles  of  the  veteran  Presi- 
dent. Polygamous  Utah  resisted  the  judicial  authori- 
ties placed  over  its  people  by  the  Federal  Government, 
and  a  military  force  was  presently  sent  to  suppress  the 
insurrection. 

On  the  stump  in  the  summer  of  1857  Douglas  took 
upon  his  shoulders  the  new  burden  of  the  Dred  Scott 
decision  —  a  theme  which  excited  the  zeal  of  Lincoln 
scarcely  less  than  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compro- 
mise. In  his  first  important  speech  after  Buchanan's 
inauguration,  Lincoln  said  in  opening  (at  Springfield, 
June  26,  1857): 

Two  weeks  ago  Judge  Douglas  spoke  here,  on  the  sev- 
eral subjects  of  Kansas,  the  Dred  Scott  decision,  and  Utah. 
I  listened  to  the  speech  at  the  time,  and  have  read  the  report 
of  it  since.  It  was  intended  to  controvert  opinions  which 
I  think  just,  and  to  assail  (politically,  not  personally)  those 
men  who,  in  common  with  me,  entertain  those  opinions.  For 
this  reason  I  wished  then,  and  still  wish  to  make  some  an- 
swer to  it,  which  I  now  take  the  opportunity  of  doing. 

I  begin  with  Utah.  If  it  prove  to  be  true,  as  is  probable, 
that  the  people  of  Utah  are  in  open  rebellion  against  the 
United  States,  then  Judge  Douglas  is  in  favor  of  repealing 
their  territorial  organization,  and  attaching  them  to  the 
adjoining  States  for  judicial  purposes.  I  say,  too,  if  they 
are  in  rebellion,  they  ought  to  be  somehow  coerced  to  obedi- 
ence, and  I  am  not  now  prepared  to  admit  or  deny  that  the 
Judge's  mode  of  coercing  them  is  not  as  good  as  any.  The 
Republicans  can  fall  in  with  it,  without  taking  back  any- 
thing they  have  ever  said.  To  be  sure,  it  would  be  a  con- 
siderable backing  down  by  Judge  Douglas  from  his  much- 
vaunted  doctrine  of  self-government  for  the  Territories ;  but 
this  is  only  additional  proof  of  what  was  very  plain  from 
the  beginning,  that  the  doctrine  was  a  mere  deceitful  pre- 


DRED  SCOTT— UTAH— COURT  CASES.     149 

tense  for  the  benefit  of  slavery.*  .  .  .  The  substance  of 
the  Judge's  speech  on  Kansas  is  an  effort  to  put  the  Free 
State  men  in  the  wrong  for  not  voting  at  the  election  of 
delegates  to  the  Constitutional  Convention.  ...  I  readily 
agree  that  if  all  had  a  chance  to  vote,  they  ought  to  have 
voted.  If,  on  the  contrary,  as  they  allege,  and  Judge 
Douglas  ventures  not  particularly  to  contradict,  few  only  of 
the  Free-State  men  had  a  chance  to  vote,  they  were  perfectly 
right  in  staying  away  from  the  polls  in  a  body.    .    .    . 

Of  the  Dred  Scott  decision  he  said: 

That  decision  declares  two  propositions  —  first,  that  a 
negro  can  not  sue  in  the  United  States  Courts ;  and  secondly, 
that  Congress  can  not  prohibit  slavery  in  the  Territories. 
It  was  made  by  a  divided  court,  dividing  differently  on  the 
different  points.  .  .  .  Judicial  decisions  have  two  uses  — 
first,  to  absolutely  determine  the  case  decided ;  and  secondly, 
to  indicate  to  the  public  how  other  similar  cases  will  be 
decided  when  they  arise.  For  the  latter  use  they  are  called 
"  precedents  "  and  "  authorities."  Judicial  decisions  are  of 
greater  or  less  authority  as  precedents,  according  to  circum- 
stances. That  this  should  be  so  accords  both  with  common 
sense,  and  the  customary  understanding  of  the  legal  profes- 
sion. If  this  important  decision  had  been  made  by  the 
unanimous  concurrence  of  the  judges,  and  without  any 
apparent  partisan  bias,  and  in  accordance  with  legal  public 
expectation,  and  with  the  steady  practice  of  the  departments, 
throughout  our  history,  and  had  been  in  no  part  based  upon 
assumed  historical  facts  which  are  not  really  true ;  or,  if 
wanting  in  some  of  these,  it  had  been  before  the  Court  more 
than  once,  and  had  there  been  affirmed  and  reaffirmed 
through  a  course  of  years,  it  then  might  be,  perhaps  would 
be,  factious,  nay,  even  revolutionary,  not  to  acquiesce  in  it 
as  a  precedent. 

But  when,  as  is  true,  we  find  it  wanting  in  all  these  claims 
to  the  public  confidence,  it  is  not  resistance,  it  is  not  factious, 

*One  of  the  sharpest  arrows  of  the  Philadelphia  platform  had 
been  feathered  with  the  exasperating  phrase,  "  twin  relics  of  bar- 
barism— polygamy  and  slavery." 


i5o       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY 

it  is  not  even  disrespectful,  to  treat  it  as  not  having  yet  quite 
established  a  settled  doctrine  for  the  country.    .    .    . 

I  have  said,  in  substance,  that  the  Dred  Scott  decision 
was,  in  part,  based  on  assumed  historical  facts  which  were 
not  really  true,  and  I  ought  not  to  leave  the  subject  without 
giving  some  reasons  for  saying  this.  I  therefore  give  an 
instance  or  two  which  I  think  fully  sustain  me.  Chief  Jus- 
tice Taney,  in  delivering  the  opinion  of  the  majority  of  the 
Court,  insists  at  great  length  that  negroes  were  no  part  of 
the  people  who  made,  or  for  whom  was  made,  the  Declara- 
tion of  Independence  or  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States.  On  the  contrary,  Judge  Curtis,  in  his  dissenting 
opinion,  shows  that  in  five  of  the  then  thirteen  States,  to- 
wit:  New  Hampshire,  Massachusetts,  New  York,  New 
Jersey  and  North  Carolina,  free  negroes  were  voters,  and, 
in  proportion  to  their  numbers,  had  the  same  part  in  making 
the  Constitution  that  the  white  people  did. 

Again,  Chief  Justice  Taney  says :  "  It  is  difficult,  at  this 
day,  to  realize  the  state  of  public  opinion  in  relation  to  that 
unfortunate  race,  which  prevailed  in  the  civilized  and  en- 
lightened portions  of  the  world  at  the  time  of  the  Declara- 
tion of  Independence,  and  when  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States  was  framed  and  adopted."  And  again,  after 
quoting  from  the  Declaration,  he  says :  "  The  general  words 
above  quoted  would  seem  to  include  the  whole  human  family, 
and  if  they  were  used  in  a  similar  instrument  at  this  day, 
would  be  so  understood." 

In  these  words  the  Chief  Justice  does  not  directly  assert, 
but  plainly  assumes  as  a  fact,  that  the  public  estimate  of 
the  black  man  is  more  favorable  now  than  it  was  in  the  days 
of  the  Revolution.  This  assumption  is  a  mistake.  In  some 
trifling  particulars  the  condition  of  that  race  has  been  amel- 
iorated ;  but,  as  a  whole,  in  this  country,  the  change  between 
then  and  now  is  decidedly  the  other  way,  and  their  ultimate 
destiny  has  never  appeared  so  hopeless  as  in  the  last  three  or 
four  years.  In  two  of  the  five  States  —  New  Jersey  and 
North  Carolina  —  that  then  gave  the  free  negro  the  right 
of  voting,  the  right  has  since  been  taken  away ;  and  in  the 
third  —  New  York  —  it  has  been  greatly  abridged,  while  it 
has  not  been  extended,  so  far  as  I  know,  to  a  single  addi- 
tional State,  though  the  number  of  the  States  has  been  more 


DRED  SCOTT— UTAH— COURT  CASES.     151 

than  doubled.  In  those  days,  as  I  understand,  masters  could, 
at  their  own  pleasure,  emancipate  their  slaves ;  but  since  then 
such  legal  restraints  have  been  made  upon  emancipation  as 
to  amount  almost  to  prohibition.  In  those  days  Legislatures 
held  the  unquestioned  power  to  abolish  slavery  in  their  re- 
spective States ;  but  now  it  is  becoming  quite  fashionable  for 
State  Constitutions  to  withhold  that  power  from  the  Leg- 
islatures. In  those  days,  by  common  consent,  the  spread  of 
the  black  man's  bondage  to  the  new  countries  was  prohib- 
ited ;  but  now  Congress  decides  that  it  will  not  continue  the 
prohibition  —  and  the  Supreme  Court  decides  that  it  could 
not  if  it  would.  In  those  days  our  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence was  held  sacred  by  all,  and  thought  to  include  all ; 
but  now  to  aid  in  making  the  bondage  of  the  negro  universal 
and  eternal,  it  is  assailed,  sneered  at,  construed,  hawked  at, 
and  torn,  till,  if  its  framers  could  rise  from  their  graves,  they 
could  not  at  all  recognize  it.  All  the  powers  of  the  earth 
seem  rapidly  combining  against  him.  Mammon  is  after  him  ; 
ambition  follows,  philosophy  follows,  and  the  theology  of 
the  day  is  fast  joining  the  cry.    .    .    . 

Three  years  and  a  half  ago  Judge  Douglas  brought  for- 
ward his  famous  Nebraska  bill.  The  country  was  at  once  in 
a  blaze.  He  scorned  all  opposition,  and  carried  it  through 
Congress.  Since  then  he  has  seen  himself  superseded  in  a 
Presidential  nomination,  .  .  .  and  he  has  seen  that  suc- 
cessful rival  constitutionally  elected,  not  by  the  strength  of 
friends,  but  by  the  division  of  his  adversaries,  being  in  a 
popular  minority  of  nearly  four  hundred  thousand  votes. 
He  has  seen  his  chief  aids  in  his  own  State,  Shields  and 
Richardson,  politically  speaking,  successively  tried,  convicted 
and  executed  for  an  offense  not  their  own,  but  his.  And  now 
he  sees  his  own  case  standing  next  on  the  docket  for  trial. 

There  is  a  natural  disgust  in  the  minds  of  nearly  all 
white  people  to  the  idea  of  an  indiscriminate  amalgamation 
of  the  white  and  black  races,  and  Judge  Douglas  evidently 
is  basing  his  chief  hope  upon  the  chances  of  his  being  able 
to  appropriate  the  benefit  of  this  disgust  to  himself.  If  he 
can,  by  much  drumming  and  repeating,  fasten  the  odium  of 
that  idea  upon  his  adversaries,  he  thinks  he  can  struggle 
through  the  storm.  .  .  .  Chief  Justice  Taney,  in  his  opin- 
ion in  the  Dred  Scott  case,  admits  that  the  language  of  the 


152        LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

Declaration  is  broad  enough  to  include  the  whole  human 
family ;  but  he  and  Judge  Douglas  argue  that  the  authors  of 
that  instrument  did  not  intend  to  include  negroes,  by  the  fact 
that  they  did  not  at  once  actually  place  them  on  an  equality 
with  the  whites.    .    .    . 

They  did  not  means  to  say  all  were  equal  in  color,  size, 
intellect,  moral  development,  or  social  capacity.  They  de- 
fined with  tolerable  distinctness  in  what  respects  they  did 
consider  all  men  created  equal  —  equal  with  "  certain  in- 
alienable rights,  among  which  are  life,  liberty,  and  the  pur- 
suit of  happiness."  This  they  said,  and  this  meant.  .  .  , 
Its  authors  meant  it  to  be  as,  thank  God,  it  is  now  proving 
itself,  a  stumbling-block  to  all  those  who,  in  after  times, 
might  seek  to  turn  a  free  people  back  into  the  hateful  paths 
of  despotism.    .    .    . 

The  plainest  print  can  not  be  read  through  a  gold  eagle, 
and  it  will  be  ever  hard  to  find  many  men  who  will  send  a 
slave  to  Liberia  and  pay  his  passage,  while  they  can  send 
him  to  a  new  country  —  Kansas,  for  instance  —  and  sell 
him  for  fifteen  hundred  dollars,  and  the  rise. 

As  yet  Douglas  had  manifested  no  repugnance 
toward  the  policy  pursued  for  making  Kansas  a  slave 
State,  marked  as  in  this  regard  was  the  absence  of  any 
practical  virtue  in  his  fine  theory  of  popular  sover- 
eignty. This  device,  he  could  see,  was  now  in  immi- 
nent danger  of  returning  to  plague  its  originator. 
There  was  a  dilemma.  To  openly  sustain  the  popular 
majority  in  Kansas  was  to  forfeit  Southern  support; 
to  abandon  the  majority  there  and  help  their  enemies 
within  and  without  was  to  stultify  himself  and  to  be 
ruined  at  home. 

In  the  spring  of  1858  Lincoln  appeared  at  Beards- 
town  as  counsel  in  a  case  which  recalled  the  Menard 
country,  where  the  Sangamon  Falls  still  roar  as  of  old, 
their  voice  resounding  through  the  valley  and  over  the 


DRED  SCOTT— UTAH— COURT  CASES.     153 

heights  on  which  once  stood  the  hamlet  where  he  lived 
as  clerk,  surveyor,  law  student,  postmaster,  and,  after 
a  tour  as  captain  of  mounted  volunters,  received  the 
votes  of  all  about  him  for  member  of  the  Legislature. 
More  than  twenty-five  years  had  passed  since  he  met 
Jack  Armstrong  in  a  tough  wrestling  match,  afterwards 
visiting  occasionally  at  his  house,  and  sometimes  rock- 
ing the  cradle  in  which  lay  baby  William,  his  son.  Jack 
was  now  dead,  and  the  boy,  grown  into  manhood,  had 
come  to  be  the  chief  support  of  his  mother,  with  whom 
he  lived  on  the  old  farm.  Late  in  the  summer  of  1857 
he  and  other  young  men  of  the  neighborhood  had  gone 
to  a  camp-meeting  in  the  adjoining  county  of  Mason. 
Around  what  might  be  called  a  sutler's  wagon  of  the 
enemy,  stationed  at  a  distance  from  the  Methodist 
encampment,  thirsty  groups  were  gathered  as  the  night 
came  on.  An  affray  occurred,  in  which  one  Metzgar 
was  mortally  wounded  by  blows  on  the  head.  Arm- 
strong and  another  young  man  were  charged  with  the 
homicide,  lodged  in  the  Mason  County  jail,  and  indicted. 
There  was  an  intense  feeling  against  the  accused,  and 
there  was  one  swift  witness  ready  to  swear  that  he  saw 
the  fatal  blows  struck.  Armstrong's  counsel  obtained 
for  his  client  a  change  of  venue  to  Cass  County  and  a 
postponement  of  the  trial  until  spring.  Learning  the 
heavy  trouble  which  had  befallen  the  family,  Lincoln 
promised  the  prisoner's  mother  to  aid  in  his  defense. 
It  was  a  gratuitous  service.  At  the  trial  the  witness 
before  alluded  to  identified  the  accused  as  the  one  who 
struck  the  fatal  blows  with  a  slung-shot,  and  this,  with 
the  other  evidence  for  the  State,  seemed  to  place  his 
guilt  beyond  reasonable  doubt.     For  the  defense  there 


i54       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

was  only  testimony  to  his  previous  good  reputation  and 
peaceable  disposition;  but  the  chief  accusing  witness,  on 
cross-examination,  had  been  led  to  say  that  a  full  moon 
was  shining  clearly  at  the  time,  and  was  about  where  the 
sun  would  be  at  10  o'clock  in  the  forenoon.  Lincoln 
produced  an  almanac  to  be  given  to  the  jury,  and  in  the 
course  of  his  argument  —  one  of  the  most  eloquent  he 
ever  made  in  court  —  pointed  out  that  the  lunar  cal- 
endar proved  the  witness  a  perjurer.  Armstrong  was 
acquitted. 

A  verdict  that  seemed  so  impossible  before  Lincoln 
spoke,  the  disappointed  ones  accounted  for  by  pretend- 
ing that  the  almanac  used  was  for  the  year  previous  to 
the  homicide,  and  that  the  jurors  were  cheated.  Of 
course  such  a  charge  against  such  a  lawyer  should  need 
no  disproof;  yet  it  found  some  credence  among  dull 
people,  who  did  not  think  or  did  not  care  to  compare 
the  almanac  of  1856  with  that  of  1857,  which  would 
have  settled  the  matter  beyond  cavil. 

Another  instance,  less  noted  but  no  less  notable  than 
the  Armstrong  case,  shows  Lincoln's  readiness,  out  of 
mere  sympathy  for  a  friend  in  distress,  to  undertake  the 
defense  of  one  accused  of  crime.  At  a  meeting  of  the 
bar  in  1865,  Mr.  Linder  (mentioned  in  a  previous  chap- 
ter) told  of  his  first  meeting  with  Abraham  Lincoln  at 
Charleston,  Coles  County,  in  1835,  and  of  their  con- 
tinued friendship  thenceforward,  despite  partisan  dis- 
agreements. Not  long  ago  the  former  had  been  in 
great  trouble  on  account  of  the  indictment  of  his  son 
for  a  homicide  "  in  a  part  of  the  State  where  Lincoln 
was  a  tower  of  strength,"  and  "  where  his  arguments  at 
law  had  more  power  than  the  instructions  of  the  court." 


DRED  SCOTT —UTAH— COURT  CASES.     155 

"  I  wrote  to  him,"  continued  Mr.  Linder,  "  giving  him 
all  the  circumstances,  telling  him  of  my  wife's  grief  and 
my  own,  and  soliciting  that  he  would  come  and  assist 
me  to  defend  my  son,  though  I  feared  he  had  been 
employed  against  him.  .  .  .  He  condoled  with  us  in 
our  misfortune,  and  assured  us  that,  no  matter  what 
business  he  might  be  engaged  in,  he  would  come,  and 
that  he  was  truly  sorry  that  I  had  supposed  he  would 
take  part  in  the  prosecution  of  the  son  of  a  friend  of 
his."  To  the  offer  of  a  fee  he  replied  that  he  knew  no 
act  of  his  that  would  justify  the  supposition  "  that  he 
would  take  money  from  a  friend  for  assisting  in  the 
defense  of  a  child."  The  young  man  got  clear,  went 
South,  and  as  a  prisoner  of  war  received  further  favors 
from  the  same  benefactor  in  another  capacity. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 
1858. 

The  Lecompton  Constitution  —  Another  Democratic  Schism 
—  Lincoln  a  Candidate  for  Senator. 

Douglas  undoubtedly  wished  Kansas  promptly  ad- 
mitted and  the  annoyance  fairly  out  of  the  way.  The 
new  Congress  was  strongly  Democratic  in  both  houses. 
A  personal  friend  of  Douglas  from  Illinois,  John  Cal- 
houn, presided  over  the  Constitutional  Convention  at 
Lecompton,  and  was  actively  concerned  in  the  subsid- 
iary work  at  the  polls.  The  situation  was  at  first  alto- 
gether promising.  But  certain  ugly  facts  ere  long 
began  to  come  into  the  light  —  sinister  shapes,  which 
no  flimsy  veil  could  screen.  Before  Congress  met  the 
public  mind  at  the  North  had  become  deeply  impressed 
with  the  conviction — shared  by  Senator  Crittenden  and 
other  candid  Southern  men — that  the  Lecompton  con- 
stitution was  an  intolerable  imposition.  Douglas  him- 
self could  honestly  have  no  other  feeling.  Still  less 
could  he  be  blind  to  the  new  dangers  into  which  he 
was  drifting. 

The  case  did  not  come  before  Congress  until  early 
in  February,  when  the  President  in  a  special  message 
recommended  the  acceptance  of  the  Lecompton  con- 
stitution, and  declared  that  Kansas  was  slave  territory. 

(156) 


THE  LECOMPTON  CONSTITUTION.      157 

Douglas  promptly  announced  his  disagreement  with 
the  President,  and  soon  after,  in  a  set  speech,  declared 
against  "forcing  the  constitution  down  the  throats  of 
the  people  of  Kansas,  in  opposition  to  their  wishes  and 
in  violation  of  our  pledges."  In  spite  of  him  the  meas- 
ure so  denounced  passed  the  Senate  by  a  good  major- 
ity, only  two  others  of  the  forty  Democratic  Senators 
voting  with  him.  In  the  House  he  had  a  better  fol- 
lowing, though  not  a  large  one.  After  a  protracted 
struggle,  lasting  till  the  end  of  April  (1858),  Congress 
ordered  a  submission  of  the  Lecompton  constitution  to 
the  people  of  Kansas  for  their  adoption  or  rejection. 
Conditions  having  so  changed  before  the  time  appointed 
that  a  reasonably  fair  vote  was  possible,  the  Free-State 
men  improved  the  opportunity,  and  the  constitution  was 
repudiated. 

It  is  notable  that  for  a  time  some  prominent  Repub- 
licans, including  Henry  Wilson  and  Horace  Greeley, 
favored  the  adoption  of  Douglas  as  a  party  leader,  and 
were  ready  to  support  his  re-election  to  the  Senate.  In 
some  of  the  Congressional  districts,  at  the  ensuing  elec- 
tion, the  Republicans  helped  to  return  Anti-Lecomp- 
ton  Democrats  to  the  House,  and  the  fusion  was  ulti- 
mately advantageous  to  the  stronger  party.  The  case 
was  different  as  to  one  in  the  position  of  Douglas;  and, 
at  all  events,  this  policy  found  little  support  among  the 
Republicans  of  Illinois.  The  Democrats  of  that  State, 
at  their  convention  on  the  21st  of  April,  gave  Douglas 
ail  unconditional  indorsement.  A  few  dissentients,  in- 
deed, some  time  later  effected  a  nominal  organization, 
claiming  to  be  the  genuine  Administration  party,  and 
declaring  for  ex-Senator  Breese  as  their  candidate;  but 


158        LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

their  course  rather  helped  than  hurt  Douglas  in  his 
canvass. 

One  finds  it  difficult  to  digest  the  stubborn  truth 
that  ardent  and  able  anti-slavery  men  should  be  will- 
ing to  follow  as  a  heroic  leader  one  who  was  indiffer- 
ent whether  slavery  were  voted  up  or  voted  down  in 
Kansas,  and  all  because  —  while  he  had  been  foremost 
in  repealing  the  restriction  which,  if  left  alone,  had 
already  settled  the  question  forever — he  insisted  merely 
that  the  voting  should  be  fairly  done.  It  is  especially 
curious  that  Mr.  Greeley  —  after  both  Lincoln  and 
Douglas  had  ended  all  their  work  —  near  the  close  of 
his  life  not  only  avowed  his  active  zeal  in  this  direction, 
but  also  declared  his  unchanged  opinion,  that  in  1858 
the  Republicans  of  Illinois  should  have  aided  in  the 
re-election  of  Douglas  instead  of  supporting  Lincoln. 

Congress  sat  until  the  16th  of  June.  This  happened 
to  be  the  date  at  which  the  Republican  State  Conven- 
tion met  at  Springfield,  and  resolved  that  Abraham  Lin- 
coln was  its  first  and  only  choice  for  United  States  Sen- 
ator as  the  successor  of  Stephen  A.  Douglas.  In  the 
evening  Lincoln  addressed  the  convention,  making  one 
of  his  most  famous  speeches.  Some  passages  specially 
noticed  in  the  Lincoln-Douglas  canvass  are  here  given: 

Gentlemen  of  the  Convention: — If  we  could  first  know 
where  we  are,  and  whither  we  are  tending,  we  could  then 
better  judge  what  to  do,  and  how  to  do  it.  We  are  now 
far  on  into  the  fifth  year,  since  a  policy  was  initiated,  with 
the  avowed  object  and  confident  promise  of  putting  an  end 
to  slavery  agitation.  Under  the  operation  of  that  policy, 
that  agitation  has  not  only  not  ceased,  but  has  constantly 
augmented.  In  my  opinion  it  will  not  cease  until  a  crisis 
shall  have  been  reached   and   passed.     "A  house   divided 


"HOUSE-DIVIDED  SPEECH."  159 

against  itself  can  not  stand."  I  believe  this  Government 
can  not  endure  permanently  half  slave  and  half  free.  I  do 
not  expect  the  Union  to  be  dissolved  —  I  do  not  expect  the 
house  to  fall  —  but  I  do  expect  it  will  cease  to  be  divided. 
It  will  become  all  one  thing  or  all  the  other.  Either  the 
opponents  of  slavery  will  arrest  the  further  spread  of  it; 
and  place  it  where  the  public  mind  shall  rest  in  the  belief 
that  it  is  in  course  of  ultimate  extinction,  or  its  advocates 
will  push  it  forward  till  it  shall  become  alike  lawful  in  all 
the  States  —  old  as  well  as  new  —  North  as  well  as  South. 

Have  we  no  tendency  to  the  latter  condition?  Let  any 
one  who  doubts  carefully  contemplate  that  now  almost  com- 
plete legal  combination  —  piece  of  machinery,  so  to  speak 
—  compounded  of  the  Nebraska  doctrine  and  the  Dred  Scott 
decision.  Let  him  consider  not  only  what  work  the  ma- 
chinery is  adapted  to  do,  and  how  well  adapted,  but  also  let 
him  study  the  history  of  its  construction,  and  trace,  if  he 
can,  or  rather  fail,  if  he  can,  to  trace  the  evidences  of  de- 
sign and  concert  of  action  among  its  chief  master-workers 
from  the  beginning.    .    .    . 

While  the  Nebraska  bill  was  passing  through  Congress, 
a  law  case,  involving  the  question  of  a  negro's  freedom,  by 
reason  of  his  owner  having  voluntarily  taken  him  first  into 
a  free  State  and  then  into  a  Territory  covered  by  the  Con- 
gressional prohibition,  and  held  him  as  a  slave  —  for  a  long 
time  in  each  —  was  passing  through  the  United  States  Cir- 
cuit Court  for  the  District  of  Missouri,  and  both  Nebraska 
bill  and  lawsuit  were  brought  to  a  decision  in  the  same 
month  of  May,  1854.  The  negro's  name  was  "  Dred  Scott," 
which  name  now  designates  the  decision  finally  made  in  the 
case.  Before  the  then  next  Presidential  election  the  law 
case  came  to  and  was  argued  in  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States ;  but  the  decision  of  it  was  deferred  until  after 
the  election.    .    .    . 

At  length  a  squabble  springs  up  between  the  President 
and  the  author  of  the  Nebraska  bill  on  the  mere  question  of 
fact,  whether  the  Lecompton  constitution  was  or  was  not 
in  any  just  sense  made  by  the  people  of  Kansas ;  and  in  that 
squabble  the  latter  declares  that  all  he  wants  is  a  fair  vote 
for  the  people,  and  that  he  cares  not  whether  slavery  be  voted 
down  or  voted  up. 


i6o        LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

.  .  .  Why  was  the  amendment,  expressly  declaring  the 
right  of  the  people  to  exclude  slavery,  voted  down  ?  Plainly 
enough  now;  the  adoption  of  it  would  have  spoiled  the 
niche  for  the  Dred  Scott  decision.  Why  was  the  court 
decision  held  up  ?  Why  even  a  Senator's  individual  opinion 
withheld  till  after  the  Presidential  election  ?  Plainly  enough 
now ;  the  speaking  out  then  would  have  damaged  the  "  per- 
fectly free  "  argument  upon  which  the  election  was  to  be 
carried.  Why  the  outgoing  President's  felicitation  on  the 
indorsement?  Why  the  delay  of  a  re-argument?  Why  the 
incoming  President's  advance  exhortation  in  favor  of  the 
decision?  These  things  look  like  the  cautious  patting  and 
petting  of  a  spirited  horse,  preparatory  to  mounting  him, 
when  it  is  dreaded  that  he  may  give  the  rider  a  fall.  And 
why  the  hasty  after-indorsements  of  the  decision  by  the 
President  and  others? 

We  can  not  absolutely  know  that  all  these  exact  adapta- 
tions are  the  result  of  pre-concert.  But  when  we  see  a  lot 
of  framed  timbers,  different  portions  of  which  we  know  have 
been  gotten  out  at  different  times  and  places  and  by  different 
workmen  —  Stephen,  Franklin,  Roger  and  James,  for  in- 
stance —  and  when  we  see  these  timbers  joined  together,  and 
see  they  exactly  make  the  frame  of  a  house  or  a  mill,  all  the 
tenons  and  mortises  exactly  fitting,  and  all  the  lengths  and 
proportions  of  the  different  pieces  exactly  adapted  to  their 
respective  places,  and  not  a  piece  too  many  or  too  few  —  not 
omitting  even  scaffolding  —  or,  if  a  single  piece  be  lacking, 
we  can  see  the  place  in  the  frame  exactly  fitted  and  prepared 
to  yet  bring  such  a  piece  in  —  in  such  case  we  find  it  impos- 
sible not  to  believe  that  Stephen  and  Franklin  and  Roger 
and  James  all  understood  one  another  from  the  beginning, 
and  all  worked  upon  a  common  plan  or  draft  drawn  up 
before  the  first  blow  was  struck.    .    .    . 

Now,  as  ever,  I  wish  not  to  misrepresent  Judge  Douglas's 
position,  question  his  motives,  or  do  aught  that  can  be  per- 
sonally offensive  to  him.  Whenever,  if  ever,  he  and  we  can 
come  together  on  principle,  so  that  our  great  cause  may  have 
assistance  from  his  great  ability,  I  hope  to  have  interposed 
no  adventitious  obstacle.  But  clearly  he  is  not  now  with  us, 
he  does  not  pretend  to  be,  he  does  not  promise  ever  to  be. 
Our  cause,  then,  must  be  intrusted  to,  and  conducted  bv,  its 


"HOUSE-DIVIDED  SPEECH."  161 

own  undoubted  friends  —  those  whose  hands  are  free,  whose 
hearts  are  in  the  work  —  who  do  care  for  the  result. 

He  closed  by  saying:  "Two  years  ago  the  Repub- 
licans of  the  nation  mustered  over  thirteen  hundred 
thousand  strong.  We  did  this  under  the  single  impulse 
of  resistance  to  a  common  danger,  with  every  external 
circumstance  against  us.  Of  strange,  discordant,  and 
even  hostile  elements,  we  gathered  from  the  four  winds, 
and  formed  and  fought  the  battle  through,  under  the 
constant  hot  fire  of  a  disciplined,  proud  and  pampered 
enemy.  Did  we  brave  all  then  to  falter  now  —  now, 
when  the  same  enemy  is  wavering,  dissevered  and  bel- 
ligerent? The  result  is  not  doubtful.  We  shall  not 
fail  —  if  we  stand  firm,  we  shall  not  fail.  Wise  counsels 
may  accelerate  or  mistakes  delay  it,  but  sooner  or  later, 
the  victory  is  sure  to  come." 

After  the  adjournment  of  Congress,  Douglas  lin- 
gered more  than  three  weeks  at  the  East.  He  had 
carefully  watched  all  preliminaries  of  the  combat,  and 
did  not  return  unprovided  with  liberal  campaign  funds. 
Arriving  in  Chicago  on  the  9th  of  July,  he  had  a  tri- 
umphal entry,  quite  in  contrast  with  his  reception  there 
four  years  before.  Here,  to  be  the  last  of  his  changing 
abodes,  he  had  taken  up  his  residence  after  being  fairly 
launched  on  a  national  career.  He  now  came  to  his 
home  not  only  with  the  indorsement  of  the  Democratic 
party  of  Illinois,  but  also  with  the  prestige  of  a  bold  and 
successful  conflict  with  the  Democratic  administration. 

In  response  to  the  auspicious  and  inspiring  home- 
welcome,  he  spoke  at  much  length  in  his  wonted 
bold,  imperious  manner.  Lincoln  was  present  to  hear. 
Douglas  claimed  the  merit  of  defeating  the  Lecompton 
11 


1 62        LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

scheme,  and  patronizingly  thanked  the  Republicans  for 
"coming  up  manfully  and  sustaining"  him  in  his  work. 
At  length  he  came  to  Lincoln's  Springfield  speech  of 
the  1 6th  of  June: 

I  have  observed  from  the  public  prints  that  but  a  few 
days  ago  the  Republican  party  of  the  State  of  Illinois  assem- 
bled in  convention  at  Springfield,  and  not  only  laid  down 
their  platform,  but  nominated  a  candidate  for  the  LTnited 
States  Senate  as  my  successor.  I  take  great  pleasure  in  say- 
ing that  I  have  known,  personally  and  intimately,  for  about 
a  quarter  of  a  century,  the  worthy  gentleman  who  has  been 
nominated  for  my  place,  and  I  will  say  that  I  regard  him  as 
a  kind,  amiable  and  intelligent  gentleman,  a  good  citizen  and 
an  honorable  opponent ;  and  whatever  issue  I  may  have  with 
him  will  be  of  principle,  and  not  involving  personalities.  Mr. 
Lincoln  made  a  speech  before  that  Republican  Convention 
which  unanimously  nominated  him  for  the  Senate  —  a 
speech  evidently  well  prepared  and  carefully  written  —  in 
which  he  states  the  basis  upon  which  he  proposes  to  carry  on 
the  campaign  during  this  summer.  In  it  he  lays  down  two 
distinct  propositions  which  I  shall  notice,  and  upon  which 
I  shall  take  a  direct  and  bold  issue  with  him. 

His  first  and  main  proposition  I  will  give  in  his  own  lan- 
guage, Scripture  quotation  and  all ;  I  give  his  exact  lan- 
guage: "'A  house  divided  against  itself  can  not  stand.'  I 
believe  this  Government  can  not  endure,  permanently,  half 
slave  and  half  free.  I  do  not  expect  the  Union  to  be  dis- 
solved. I  do  not  expect  the  house  to  fall ;  but  I  do  expect  it 
to  cease  to  be  divided.  It  will  become  all  one  thing  or  all 
the  other."  In  other  words,  Mr.  Lincoln  asserts,  as  a  fun- 
damental principle  of  this  government,  that  there  must  be 
uniformity  in  the  local  laws  and  domestic  institutions  of  each 
and  all  the  States  of  the  Union ;  and  he  therefore  invites  all 
the  non-slaveholding  States  to  band  together,  organize  as  one 
body,  and  make  war  upon  slavery  in  Kentucky,  upon  slavery 
in  Virginia,  upon  slavery  in  the  Carolinas,  upon  slavery  in 
all  the  slaveholding  States  in  this  Union,  and  to  persevere 
in  that  war  until  it  shall  be  exterminated.  .  .  .  Now,  my 
friends,  I  must  say  to  you  frankly  that  I  take  bold,  unqual- 


"HOUSE-DIVIDED  SPEECH."  163 

ified  issue  with  him  upon  that  principle.  I  assert  that  it  is 
neither  desirable  nor  possible  that  there  should  be  uniformity 
in  the  local  institutions  and  domestic  regulations  of  the  dif- 
ferent States  of  this  Union.  The  framers  of  our  govern- 
ment never  contemplated  uniformity  in  its  internal  concerns. 

The  other  proposition  discussed  by  Mr.  Lincoln  in  his 
speech  consists  in  a  crusade  against  the  Supreme  Court  of 
the  United  States  on  account  of  the  Dred  Scott  decision. 
On  this  question,  also,  I  desire  to  say  to  you  unequivocally 
that  I  take  direct  and  distinct  issue  with  him.  I  have  no 
warfare  to  make  on  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States, 
either  on  account  of  that  or  any  other  decision  which  they 
have  pronounced  from  that  bench.  ...  I  have  no  idea  of 
appealing  from  the  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court  upon  a 
constitutional  question  to  the  decisions  of  a  tumultuous  town 
meeting.  I  am  aware  that  once  an  eminent  lawyer  of  this 
city,  now  no  more,  said  that  the  State  of  Illinois  had  the 
most  perfect  judicial  system  in  the  world,  subject  to  but  one 
exception,  which  could  be  cured  by  a  slight  amendment,  and 
that  amendment  was  to  so  change  the  law  as  to  allow  an 
appeal  from  the  decisions  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Illinois, 
on  all  constitutional  questions,  to  Justices  of  the  Peace. 

[ "  You  were  then  on  the  Supreme  Bench,"  said  Lincoln, 
quietly.] 

My  friend,  Mr.  Lincoln,  who  sits  behind  me,  reminds  me 
that  the  proposition  was  made  when  I  was  Judge  of  the 
Supreme  Court.  Be  that  as  it  may,  I  do  not  think  that  fact 
adds  any  greater  weight  or  authority  to  the  suggestion.  .  .  . 
I  am  opposed  to  this  doctrine  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  by  which  he 
proposes  to  take  an  appeal  from  the  decision  of  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States,  upon  this  high  constitutional 
question,  to  a  Republican  caucus  sitting  in  the  country.  Yes, 
or  any  other  caucus  or  town  meeting,  whether  it  be  Repub- 
lican, American,  or  Democratic.  I  respect  the  decisions  of 
that  august  tribunal ;  I  shall  always  bow  in  deference  to 
them.  .  .  .  He  objects  to  the  Dred  Scott  decision  because  it 
does  not  put  the  negro  in  the  possession  of  the  rights  of 
citizenship  on  an  equality  with  the  white  man.  I  am  opposed 
I  to  negro  equality.  ...  I  am  opposed  to  taking  any  step- 
:  that  recognizes  the  negro  man  or  the  Indian  as  the  equal  of 
the  white  man.     I  am  opposed  to  giving  him  a  voice  in  the 


164       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

administration  of  the  government.  I  would  extend  to  the 
negro,  and  the  Indian,  and  to  all  dependent  races,  every 
right,  every  privilege,  and  every  immunity  consistent  with 
the  safety  and  welfare  of  the  white  races ;  but  equality  they 
never  should  have,  either  political  or  social,  or  in  any  other 
respect  whatever. 

As  some  of  Lincoln's  friends  had  foretold,  coupling 
the  prophecy  with  a  warning  that  was  not  heeded, 
Douglas  had  with  alacrity  seized  upon  the  soon  famous 
passage  introduced  with  a  scriptural  quotation,  as  a 
basis  for  assuming  the  aggressive.  On  neither  side  was 
this  matter  dropped  until  the  last  speech  of  the  canvass 
was  ended. 

From  the  same  platform  Lincoln  replied  on  the  next 
evening,  the  large  audience  receiving  him  with  as  hearty 
manifestations  as  Douglas  had  been  received  the  night 
before.  After  reviewing  the  ''popular  sovereignty'' 
eulogized  by  Douglas  and  illustrated  in  Kansas,  Lin- 
coln touched  upon  the  claim  set  up  by  the  Senator  on 
the  score  of  his  opposition  to  the  Lecompton  scheme, 
and  continued: 

Judge  Douglas  made  two  points  upon  my  recent  speech 
at  Springfield.  He  says  they  are  to  be  the  issues  of  this 
campaign.  The  first  one  of  these  points  he  bases  upon  the 
language  in  a  speech  which  I  delivered  at  Springfield,  which 
I  believe  I  can  quote  correctly  from  memory.  .  .  .  He 
says  that  I  am  in  favor  of  making  war  by  the  North  upon 
the  South  for  the  extinction  of  slavery ;  that  I  am  also  in 
favor  of  inviting,  as  he  expresses  it,  the  South  to  a  war  upon 
the  North  for  the  purpose  of  nationalizing  slavery.  Now, 
it  is  singular  enough,  if  you  will  carefully  read  that  passage 
over,  that  I  did  not  say  that  I  was  in  favor  of  anything  in  it. 
I  only  said  what  I  expected  would  take  place.  I  made  a 
prediction  only  —  it  may  have  been  a  foolish  one  perhaps. 
I  did  not  even  say  that  I  desired  that  slavery  should  be  put 


CANDIDATE  FOR  SENATOR.  165 

in  course  of  ultimate  extinction.  I  do  say  so  now,  however, 
so  there  need  be  no  longer  any  difficulty  about  that.  It  may 
be  written  down  in  the  next  speech.  ...  I  have  always 
hated  slavery,  I  think,  as  much  as  any  Abolitionist.  I  have 
been  an  Old-Line  Whig.  I  have  always  hated  it,  but  I  have 
always  been  quiet  about  it  until  this  new  era  of  the  intro- 
duction of  the  Nebraska  bill  began.  I  always  believed  that 
everybody  was  against  it,  and  that  it  was  in  course  of  ulti- 
mate extinction.  ...  I  have  said  a  hundred  times,  and  I 
have  no  inclination  to  take  it  back,  that  I  believe  there  is  no 
right,  and  ought  to  be  no  inclination  in  the  people  of  the  free 
States  to  enter  into  the  slave  States  and  to  interfere  with 
the  question  of  slavery  at  all.  I  have  said  that  always.  .  .  . 
A  little  now  on  the  other  point  —  the  Dred  Scott  decision. 
.  .  .  What  is  fairly  implied  by  the  term  Judge  Douglas  has 
used,  "resistance  to  the  decision"  ?  I  do  not  resist  it.  If 
I  wanted  to  take  Dred  Scott  from  his  master,  I  would  be 
interfering  with  property.  I  am  doing  no  such  thing  as  that, 
but  all  that  I  am  doing  is  refusing  to  obey  it  as  a  political 
rule.  If  I  were  in  Congress,  and  a  vote  should  come  up  on 
a  question  whether  slavery  should  be  prohibited  in  a  new 
territory,  in  spite  of  the  Dred  Scott  decision,  I  would  vote 
that  it  should.  .  .  .  We  let  this  property  abide  by  the 
decision,  but  we  will  try  to  reverse  that  decision.  We  will 
try  to  put  it  where  Judge  Douglas  will  not  object,  for  he 
says  he  will  obey  it  until  it  is  reversed.  Somebody  has  to 
reverse  that  decision,  since  it  was  made,  and  we  mean  to 
reverse  it,  and  we  mean  to  do  it  peaceably. 

After  commenting  on  Douglas's  view  of  the  Decla- 
ration of  Independence  —  substantially  as  at  Springfield 
the  previous  year  —  Lincoln  continued: 

My  friend  has  said  to  me  that  I  am  a  poor  hand  to  quote 
Scripture.  I  will  try  it  again,  however.  It  is  said  in  one 
of  the  admonitions  of  our  Lord:  "As  your  Father  in  heaven 
is  perfect,  be  ye  also  perfect."  The  Savior,  I  suppose,  did 
not  expect  that  any  human  creature  could  be  perfect  as  the 
Father  in  heaven,  but  he  said:  "As  your  Father  in  heaven 
is  perfect,  be  ye  also  perfect."  He  set  that  up  as  a  standard, 
and  he  who  did  most  toward  reaching  that  standard  attained 


166       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

the  highest  degree  of  moral  perfection.  So  I  say  in  relation 
to  the  principle  that  all  men  are  created  equal,  let  it  be  as 
nearly  reached  as  we  can.  If  we  can  not  give  freedom  to 
every  creature,  let  us  do  nothing  to  impose  slavery  upon  any 
other  creature.  Let  us,  then,  turn  this  Government  back 
into  the  channel  in  which  the  framers  of  the  Constitution 
originally  placed  it.  .  .  .  Turning  in  the  contrary  direc- 
tion that  our  friend  Judge  Douglas  proposes  —  not  inten- 
tionally—  .  .  .  tends  to  make  this  one  universal  slave 
nation.  He  is  one  that  runs  in  that  direction,  and  as  such  I 
resist  him. 

The  two  Chicago  speeches  and  that  of  Lincoln  at 
Springfield  in  June  present  the  chief  subjects  of  the 
campaign.  Douglas  could  not,  of  course,  neglect  to 
appear  early  at  the  State  capital,  and  on  his  way  thither 
he  spoke  at  Bloomington,  and  was  again  listened  to  by 
his  competitor.  The  Senator's  speech  at  Springfield  on 
the  17th  had  much  resemblance  to  his  "key-note"  at 
Chicago.  Lincoln  also  spoke  there  on  the  same  day, 
at  night,  without  having  heard  Douglas  in  the  after- 
noon. His  opening  remarks  pointed  out  some  of  the 
unequal  conditions  of  the  contest: 

....  In  the  first  place,  we  have  a  Legislature  to  elect 
upon  an  apportionment  of  the  representation  made  several 
years  ago,  when  the  proportion  of  the  population  was  far 
greater  in  the  south,  as  compared  with  the  north,  than  it 
now  is ;  and  inasmuch  as  our  opponents  hold  almost  entire 
sway  in  the  south,  and  we  a  correspondingly  large  majority 
in  the  north,  the  fact  that  we  are  now  to  be  represented  as 
we  were  years  ago,  when  the  population  was  different,  is  to 
me  a  very  great  disadvantage.    .    .    . 

Proceeding  to  the  methods  and  plans  of  his  com- 
petitor, he  said: 

After  Senator  Douglas  left  Washington,  as  his  move- 
ments were  made  known  by  the  public  prints,  he  tarried  a 


CANDIDATE  FOR  SENATOR.  167 

considerable  time  in  the  city  of  New  York;  and  it  was 
heralded  that,  like  another  Napoleon,  he  was  lying  by  and 
framing  the  plan  of  his  campaign.  .  .  .  What  I  shall  point 
out,  though  not  showing  the  whole  plan,  are,  nevertheless, 
the  main  points,  as  I  suppose.  They  are  not  very  numerous. 
The  first  is  Popular  Sovereignty.  The  second  and  third  are 
attacks  upon  my  speech  made  on  the  16th  of  June.  .  .  . 
Upon  these  his  successive  speeches  are  substantially  one 
and  the  same.  .  .  .  Auxiliary  to  these  main  points,  to  be 
sure,  are  their  thunderings  of  cannon,  their  marching  and 
music,  their  fizzle-gigs  and  fireworks ;  but  I  will  not  waste 
time  with  them.  They  are  but  the  little  trappings  of  the 
campaign.    .    .    . 

Judge  Douglas  said,  at  Bloomington,  that  I  used  lan- 
guage most  able  and  ingenious  for  concealing  what  I  really 
meant ;  and  that,  while  I  had  protested  against  entering  into 
the  slave  States,  I  nevertheless  did  mean  to  go  on  the  banks 
of  the  Ohio  and  throw  missiles  into  Kentucky,  to  disturb  the 
people  there  in  their  domestic  institutions.  I  said  in  that 
speech,  and  I  meant  no  more,  that  the  institution  of  slavery 
ought  to  be  placed  in  the  very  attitude  where  the  framers  of 
this  Government  placed  it,  and  left  it.  I  do  not  understand 
that  the  framers  of  our  Constitution  left  the  people  of  the 
free  States  in  the  attitude  of  firing  bombs  or  shells  into  the 
slave  States.    .    .    . 

Mr.  Brooks,  of  South  Carolina,  in  one  of  his  speeches, 
when  they  were  presenting  him  canes,  silver  plate,  gold 
pitchers  and  the  like,  for  assaulting  Senator  Sumner,  dis- 
tinctly affirmed  his  opinion  that  when  this  Constitution 
was  formed,  it  was  the  belief  of  no  man  that  slavery  would 
last  to  the  present  day.  He  said,  what  I  think,  that  the 
framers  of  our  Constitution  placed  the  institution  of  slavery 
where  the  public  mind  rested  in  the  hope  that  it  was  in  the 
course  of  ultimate  extinction.  But  he  went  on  to  say  that 
the  men  of  the  present  age,  by  their  experience,  have  become 
wiser  than  the  framers  of  the  Constitution ;  and  the  inven- 
tion of  the  cotton-gin  had  made  the  perpetuity  of  slavery  a 
necessity  in  this  country. 

Recurring  to  the  Dred  Scott  case,  he  cited  Jeffer- 
son's views  on  judicial  decisions,  alluded  to  the  course 


1 68        LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

of  the  Democratic  party  and  of  Douglas  personally,  in 
regard  to  the  National  Bank  decision,  and  concluded: 

Judge  Douglas  is  for  Supreme  Court  decisions  when  he 
likes,  and  against  them  when  he  does  not  like  them.  He  is 
for  the  Dred  Scott  decision  because  it  tends  to  nationalize 
slavery  —  because  it  is  a  part  of  the  original  combination  for 
that  object.  It  so  happened,  singularly  enough,  that  I  never 
stood  opposed  to  a  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court  till  this. 
On  the  contrary,  I  have  no  recollection  that  he  was  ever  par- 
ticularly in  favor  of  one  till  this.  He  never  was  in  favor  of 
any,  nor  I  opposed  to  any,  till  the  present  one,  which  helps 
to  nationalize  slavery.  Free  men  of  Sangamon  —  free  men 
of  Illinois  —  free  men  everywhere  —  judge  ye  between  him 
and  me  upon  this  issue. 

It  was  not  until  the  last  of  July  that  on  Lincoln's 
challenge  Douglas  agreed  to  a  series  of  joint  meet- 
ings —  one  in  each  of  the  seven  Congressional  districts 
in  which  they  had  not  yet  spoken  during  the  present 
canvass. 

It  may  be  presumed  that  many  of  Lincoln's  friends, 
who  knew  the  skill  and  ability  of  Douglas  in  debate 
especially,  regarded  the  challenge  as  a  bold,  if  not  a 
rash  one.  The  two  were  unlike  in  their  methods.  As 
his  opponent  said  of  him,  Lincoln  was  "  conscientious," 
and  his  candor  seemed  at  times  to  place  him  at  a  disad- 
vantage with  a  wily  antagonist;  nor  had  he  the  practical 
readiness  in  face-to-face  discussion,  for  which  the  other 
was  distinguished.  Lincoln  was  not  alone  in  thinking 
the  Senator  a  somewhat  unscrupulous  opponent  in  a 
pressing  emergency.  Often  overbearing  in  his  manner, 
conscious  of  the  superior  position  his  better  fortune  in 
politics  had  gained  for  him,  and  impressed  now  with  a 
lively  sense  of  the  consequences  of  defeat,  he  would  cer- 


CANDIDATE  FOR  SENATOR.  169 

tainly  spare  no  available  resource  in  this  contest.  But 
he  had  shown  no  alacrity  in  consenting  to  a  joint  can- 
vass, even  the  partial  one  granted;  nor  did  he  think 
Lincoln's  challenge  mere  "banter,"  as  at  one  of  their 
later  meetings,  when  in  a  rather  exasperated  mood,  he 
seemed  to  insinuate.  He  knew  Lincoln  better  than 
some  other  politicians  did,  and  though  not  lacking  in 
self-confidence,  was  possibly  not  quite  sure  that  any- 
thing would  be  gained  on  his  part  by  accepting  the 
challenge. 

Speaking  separately  for  the  next  three  weeks,  each 
of  course  went  over  the  same  ground  substantially  as 
at  Chicago  and  Springfield. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

August  -  October,  1858. 
The  Lincoln  -  Douglas  Debate. 

At  the  first  joint  meeting,  August  21st,  at  Ottawa, 
in  the  strongly  anti-slavery  district  represented  by  Owen 
Lovejoy,  Douglas  led  off  in  the  line  of  talk  into  which, 
after  his  opening  at  Chicago,  he  habitually  struck  when 
choosing  his  own  course,  or  when  he  wanted  an  easy 
road  to  fall  back  upon.  This  was  his  starting  point: 
"Prior  to  1854  this  country  was  divided  into  two  great 
political  parties,  known  as  the  Whig  and  the  Demo- 
cratic parties.  Both  were  national  and  patriotic,  advo- 
cating principles  that  were  universal  in  their  applica- 
tion. ...  In  1854,  Mr.  Abraham  Lincoln  and  Mr. 
Trumbull  entered  into  an  arrangement,  one  with  the 
other,  and  each  with  his  respective  friends,  to  dissolve 
the  old  Whig  party  on  the  one  hand,  and  to  dissolve  the 
old  Democratic  party  on  the  other,  and  to  connect  the 
members  of  both  into  an  Abolition  party,  under  the 
name  and  disguise  of  a  Republican  party.  The  terms 
of  that  arrangement  between  Mr.  Lincoln  and  Mr. 
Trumbull  .  .  .  were,  that  Lincoln  should  have  Shields's 
place  in  the  United  States  Senate,  which  was  then  about 
to  become  vacant,  and  that  Trumbull  should  have  my 
seat  when  my  term  expired.  ...  In  pursuance  of  the 
arrangement,  the  parties  met  at  Springfield  in  October, 

(170) 


THE  LINCOLN-DOUGLAS  DEBATE.      171 

1854,  and  proclaimed  their  new  platform.  I  have  the 
resolutions  of  their  State  Convention  then  held,  which 
was  the  first  State  Convention  ever  held  in  Illinois  by 
the  Black  Republican  party,  and  I  now  hold  them  in 
my  hands,  and  will  read  a  part  of  them,  and  cause  the 
others  to  be  printed." 

The  resolutions  thus  produced  were  not  those 
adopted  by  the  "first  State  Convention,"  (which  met 
at  Bloomington  in  1856,)  nor  were  they  adopted  in 
1854  at  Springfield,  as  alleged,  but  at  a  local  convention 
held  much  farther  north.  On  the  erroneous  assump- 
tion made,  Douglas  proceeded  to  interrogate  his  oppo- 
nent as  to  his  position  on  the  fugitive  slave  law,  the 
admission  of  new  slave  States,  and  so  forth,  and  added: 
"I  ask  Abraham  Lincoln  to  answer  these  questions,  in 
order  that  when  I  trot  him  down  to  lower  Egypt  I  may 
put  the  same  questions  to  him.  ...  I  desire  to  know 
whether  Mr.  Lincoln's  principles  will  bear  transporting 
from  Ottawa  to  Jonesboro.  I  put  these  questions  to 
him  to-day  distinctly,  and  ask  an  answer."  Then  came 
the  following  personalities: 

In  the  remarks  I  have  made  on  this  platform,  and  the 
position  of  Mr.  Lincoln  upon  it,  I  mean  nothing  personally 
disrespectful  or  unkind  to  that  gentleman.  I  have  known 
him  for  nearly  twenty-five  years.  There  were  many  points 
of  sympathy  between  us  when  we  first  got  acquainted.  We 
were  both  comparatively  boys,  and  both  struggling  with  pov- 
erty in  a  strange  land.  I  was  a  school  teacher  in  the  town 
of  Winchester,  and  he  a  flourishing  grocery-keeper  in  the 
town  of  Salem.  He  was  more  successful  in  his  occupation 
than  I  was  in  mine,  and  hence  more  fortunate  in  this  world's 
goods.  Lincoln  is  one  of  those  peculiar  men  who  perform 
with  admirable  skill  everything  which  they  undertake.  I 
made  as  good  a  school  teacher  as  I  could,  and  when  a  cabi- 


172        LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

net-maker  I  made  a  good  bedstead  and  tables,  although  my 
old  boss  said  I  succeeded  better  with  bureaus  and  secreta- 
ries than  with  anything  else ;  but  I  believe  that  Lincoln  was 
always  more  successful  in  business  than  I,  for  his  business 
enabled  him  to  get  into  the  Legislature.  I  met  him  there, 
however,  and  had  a  sympathy  with  him,  because  of  the 
up-hill  struggle  we  both  had  in  life.  He  was  then  just  as 
good  at  telling  an  anecdote  as  now.  He  could  beat  any  of 
the  boys  at  wrestling,  or  running  a  foot-race,  in  pitching 
quoits  or  tossing  a  copper;  could  ruin  more  liquor  than  all 
the  boys  of  the  town  together,  and  the  dignity  and  impar- 
tiality with  which  he  presided  at  a  horse-race  or  fist-fight 
excited  the  admiration  and  won  the  praise  of  everybody 
that  was  present  and  participating.  I  sympathized  with  him, 
because  he  was  struggling  with  difficulties,  and  so  was  I. 
Mr.  Lincoln  served  with  me  in  the  Legislature  in  1836,  when 
we  both  retired,  and  he  subsided,  or  became  submerged,  and 
he  was  lost  sight  of  as  a  public  man  for  some  years.  In 
1846,  when  Wilmot  introduced  his  celebrated  proviso,  and 
the  Abolition  tornado  swept  over  the  country,  Lincoln  again 
turned  up  as  a  member  of  Congress  from  the  Sangamon  dis- 
trict. I  was  then  in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States,  and 
was  glad  to  welcome  my  old  friend  and  companion.  Whilst 
in  Congress  he  distinguished  himself  by  his  opposition  to  the 
Mexican  war,  taking  the  side  of  the  common  enemy  against 
his  own  country ;  and  when  he  returned  home  he  found  that 
the  indignation  of  the  people  followed  him  everywhere,  and 
he  was  again  submerged  or  obliged  to  retire  into  private  life, 
forgotten  by  his  former  friends.  He  came  up  again  in  1854, 
just  in  time  to  make  this  Abolition  or  Black  Republican  plat- 
form, in  company  with  Giddings,  Lovejoy,  Chase  and  Fred. 
Douglass,  for  the  Republican  party  to  stand  upon.  Trum- 
bull, too,  was  one  of  our  own  contemporaries.  He  was  born 
and  raised  in  old  Connecticut,  was  bred  a  Federalist,  but 
removing  to  Georgia,  turned  Nullifier,  when  nullification  was 
popular,  and  as  soon  as  he  disposed  of  his  clocks  and  wound 
up  his  business,  migrated  to  Illinois,  turned  politician  and 
lawyer  here,  and  made  his  appearance  in  1841  as  a  member 
of  the  Legislature. 

Following  this  biographic  fancy-work  came  the  inev- 


THE  LINCOLN-DOUGLAS  DEBATE.      173 

itable  onslaught  on  the  16th  of  June  speech,  with  more 
of  the  spice  of  caricature  and  badinage: 

We  are  told  by  Lincoln  that  he  is  utterly  opposed  to  the 
Dred  Scott  decision,  and  will  not  submit  to  it,  for  the  reason 
that  he  says  it  deprives  the  negro  of  the  rights  and  privileges 
of  citizenship.  ...  I  ask  you,  are  you  in  favor  of  confer- 
ring upon  the  negro  the  rights  and  privileges  of  citizenship  ? 
Do  you  desire  to  strike  out  of  our  State  Constitution  that 
clause  which  keeps  slaves  and  free  negroes  out  of  the  State, 
and  allow  the  free  negroes  to  flow  in,  and  cover  your  prairies 
with  black  settlements  ?  Do  you  desire  to  turn  this  beautiful 
State  into  a  free  negro  colony,  in  order  that  when  Missouri 
abolishes  slavery  she  can  send  one  hundred  thousand  eman- 
cipated slaves  into  Illinois,  to  become  citizens  and  voters, 
on  an  equality  with  yourselves?  .  .  .  For  one,  I  am 
opposed  to  negro  citizenship  in  any  and  every  form.  I  be- 
lieve this  Government  was  made  on  the  white  basis.  I 
believe  it  was  made  by  white  men,  for  the  benefit  of  white 
men  and  their  posterity  forever,  and  I  am  in  favor  of  con- 
fining citizenship  to  white  men,  men  of  European  birth  and 
descent,  instead  of  conferring  it  upon  negroes,  Indians  and 
other  inferior  races.  Mr.  Lincoln,  following  the  example 
and  lead  of  all  the  little  Abolition  orators,  who  go  around 
and  lecture  in  the  basements  of  schools  and  churches,  reads 
from  the  Declaration  of  Independence  that  all  men  were 
created  equal,  and  then  asks,  How  can  you  deprive  a  negro 
of  that  equality  which  God  and  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence award  to  him?  I  do  not  question  Mr.  Lincoln's 
conscientious  belief  that  the  negro  was  made  his  equal,  and 
hence  is  his  brother;  but  for  my  own  part,  I. do  not  regard 
the  negro  as  my  equal,  and  positively  deny  that  he  is  my 
brother  or  any  kin  to  me  whatever.  ...  I  believe  that 
this  new  doctrine  preached  by  Mr.  Lincoln  and  his  party 
will  dissolve  the  Union  if  it  succeeds. 

Douglas  having  filled  his  hour,  Lincoln  began: 

When  a  man  hears  himself  somewhat  misrepresented,  it 
provokes  him  —  at  least,  I  find  it  so  with  myself ;  but  when 
misrepresentation  becomes  very  gross  and  palpable,  it  is 
more  apt  to  amuse  him.     The  first  thing  I  see  fit  to  notice 


174       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

is  the  fact  that  Judge  Douglas  alleges,  after  running  through 
the  history  of  the  old  Democratic  and  the  old  Whig  parties, 
that  Judge  Trumbull  and  myself  made  an  arrangement  in 
1854  by  which  I  was  to  have  the  place  of  General  Shields 
in  the  United  States  Senate,  and  Judge  Trumbull  was  to 
have  the  place  of  Judge  Douglas.  Now,  all  I  have  to  say 
upon  that  subject  is,  that  I  think  no  man  —  not  even  Judge 
Douglas  —  can  prove  it,  because  it  is  not  true.  I  have  no 
doubt  he  is  "  conscientious  "  in  saying  it.  As  to  those  res- 
olutions that  he  took  such  a  length  of  time  to  read,  as  being 
the  platform  of  the  Republican  party  in  1854,  I  say  I  never 
had  anything  to  do  with  them,  and  I  think  Trumbull  never 
had.  Judge  Douglas  can  not  show  that  either  of  us  ever 
did  have  anything  to  do  with  them.  .  .  .  Now,  gentle- 
men, I  hate  to  waste  my  time  on  such  things,  but  in  regard 
to  that  general  Abolition  tilt  that  Judge  Douglas  makes, 
when  he  says  that  I  was  engaged  at  that  time  in  selling  out 
and  abolitionizing  the  old  Whig  party  —  I  hope  you  will 
permit  me  to  read  a  part  of  a  printed  speech  that  I  made 
then  at  Peoria,  which  will  show  altogether  a  different  view 
of  the  position  I  took  in  that  contest  of  1854.  .  .  .  This 
is  the  whole  of  it,  and  anything  that  argues  me  into  his  idea 
of  perfect  social  and  political  equality  with  the  negro  is  but 
a  specious  and  fantastic  arrangement  of  words,  by  which  a 
man  can  prove  a  horse-chestnut  to  be  a  chestnut  horse.  I 
will  say  here,  while  upon  this  subject,  that  I  have  no  pur- 
pose, directly  or  indirectly,  to  interfere  with  the  institution 
of  slavery  in  the  States  where  it  exists.  I  believe  I  have 
no  lawful  right  to  do  so,  and  I  have  no  inclination  to  do 
so.  I  have  no  purpose  to  introduce  political  and  social 
equality  between  the  white  and  the  black  races.    .    .    . 

Now  I  pass  on  to  consider  one  or  two  more  of  these 
little  follies.  The  Judge  is  wofully  at  fault  about  his  early 
friend  Lincoln  being  a  "  grocery-keeper."  I  don't  know  as 
it  would  be  a  great  sin  if  I  had  been ;  but  he  is  mistaken. 
Lincoln  never  kept  a  grocery  anywhere  in  the  world.  It 
is  true  that  Lincoln  did  work  the  latter  part  of  one  winter 
in  a  little  still-house,  up  at  the  head  of  a  hollow.  And  so 
I  think  my  friend,  the  Judge,  is  equally  at  fault  when  he 
charges  me  at  the  time  when  I  was  in  Congress  of  having 
opposed  our  soldiers  who  were  fighting  in  the  Mexican  war. 


THE  LINCOLN-DOUGLAS  DEBATE.      175 

He  then  gave  some  attention  to  his  opponent's  con- 
struction of  the  " house  divided"  feature  of  the  speech 
of  June  1 6th,  replying  substantially  as  on  previous  occa- 
sions, and  in  one  sentence  giving  a  key  to  his  purpose: 
"My  main  object  was  to  show,  so  far  as  my  humble 
ability  was  capable  of  showing,  to  the  people  of  this 
country  what  I  believed  was  the  truth,  that  there  was 
a  tendency,  if  not  a  conspiracy,  among  those  who  have 
engineered  the  slavery  question  for  the  last  four  or  five 
years,  to  make  slavery  perpetual  and  universal  in  this 
nation."  As  incidental  to  this  "main  object"  he  had 
added  a  "bit  of  comment"  containing  the  illustration 
of  "Stephen,  Franklin,  Roger  and  James,"  working 
together  in  building  a  house,  with  the  signs  of  pre- 
concert to  be  found  in  the  exact  fitting  of  tenons  and 
mortises,  and  so  forth;  to  which  Douglas,  when  "he 
took  hold  of  this  speech  "  at  Chicago,  paid  no  atten- 
tion at  all,  but  complimented  him  as  being  a  "  kind, 
amiable,  and  intelligent  gentleman,"  whereby  he  was  a 
little  "  taken,"  coming  as  it  did  "  from  a  great  man." 
"  I  was  not  very  much  accustomed  to  flattery,"  Lincoln 
said,  "  and  it  came  the  sweeter  to  me.  I  was  rather 
like  the  Hoosier  with  the  gingerbread,  when  he  said  he 
reckoned  he  loved  it  better  than  any  other  man,  and 
got  less  of  it." 

He  next  spoke  at  some  length  of  the  effect  and 
intent  of  the  Kansas-Nebraska  bill  in  combination  with 
the  Dred-Scott  decision,  concluding: 

Henry  Clay,  my  beau  ideal  of  a  statesman,  the  man  for 
whom  I  fought  all  my  humble  life  —  Henry  Clay  once  said 
of  a  class  of  men  who  would  repress  all  tendencies  to  lib- 
erty and  ultimate  emancipation,  that  they  must,  if  they  would 


176       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

do  this,  go  back  to  the  era  of  our  Independence  and  muzzle 
the  cannon  which  thunders  its  annual  joyous  return;  they 
must  blow  out  the  moral  lights  around  us ;  they  must  pen- 
etrate the  human  soul  and  eradicate  there  the  love  of  lib- 
erty ;  and  then,  and  not  till  then,  could  they  perpetuate  slav- 
ery in  this  country!  To  my  thinking,  Judge  Douglas  is, 
by  his  example  and  vast  influence,  doing  that  very  thing  in 
this  community  when  he  says  that  the  negro  has  nothing 
in  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  Henry  Clay  plainly 
understood  the  contrary.  .  .  .  And  now  I  will  only  say 
that  when,  by  all  these  means  and  appliances,  Judge  Douglas 
shall  suceeed  in  bringing  public  sentiment  to  an  exact  ac- 
cordance with  his  own  views,  .  .  .  then  it  needs  only  the 
formality  of  the  second  Dred  Scott  decision,  which  he  in- 
dorses in  advance,  to  make  slavery  alike  lawful  in  all  the 
States  —  old  as  well  as  new,  North  as  well  as  South. 

In  his  half-hour  response  Douglas  wasted  further 
time  on  the  spurious  "  Republican  platform,"  which 
had  figured  so  largely  in  his  opening  speech.  Of  the 
"conspiracy"  charge  Douglas  remarked: 

He  says  he  will  repeat  it  until  I  answer  his  folly  and 
nonsense  about  Stephen,  and  Franklin,  and  Roger,  and  Bob, 
and  James.  He  studied  that  out  —  prepared  that  one  sen- 
tence with  the  greatest  care,  committed  it  to  memory,  and 
put  it  in  his  first  Springfield  speech,  and  now  he  carries  that 
speech  around  and  reads  that  sentence  to  show  how  pretty 
it  is.  His  vanity  is  wounded  because  I  will  not  go  into  that 
beautiful  figure  of  his  about  the  building  of  a  house.  All 
I  have  to  say  is,  that  I  am  not  green  enough  to  let  him 
make  a  charge  which  he  acknowledges  he  does  not  know 
to  be  true,  and  then  take  up  my  time  in  answering  it,  when 
I  know  it  to  be  false  and  nobody  else  knows  it  to  be  true. 
.  .  .  .  What  does  Mr.  Lincoln  propose?  He  says  that 
the  Union  can  not  exist  divided  into  free  and  slave  States. 
If  it  can  not  endure  thus  divided,  then  he  must  strive  to  make 
them  all  free  or  all  slave,  which  will  inevitably  bring  about 
a  dissolution  of  the  Union. 

So  ended  the  Ottawa  debate.     Lincoln  wrote  next, 


THE  LINCOLN-DOUGLAS  DEBATE.      177 

day  to  a  friend:  "There  was  a  vast  concourse  of 
people  —  more  than  could  get  near  enough  to  hear." 
A  majority  were  Republicans,,  very  enthusiastic  for 
their  candidate,  and  at  the  close  he  was  borne  on  stout 
shoulders  from  the  platform. 

Freeport,  the  place  of  their  next  meeting  (August 
27th),  was  in  a  region  where,  as  in  the  Ottawa  district, 
even  the  "  regular  "  Democrats  had  repeatedly  indorsed 
what  Douglas  was  now  calling  Abolition  sentiments. 
The  opening  was  made  lively  and  picturesque  by  the 
arrival  of  the  Little  Giant  in  a  gay  barouche  drawn  by 
four  white  horses  and  loudly  greeted  by  the  throng; 
and  still  wilder  applause  hailed  the  advent  of  Lincoln, 
whose  chariot  was  a  plain  "  prairie  schooner."  This 
occasion  is  chiefly  memorable  for  one  of  the  series  of 
questions  propounded  to  Douglas  and  for  the  answer 
given,  which  bore  on  his  subsequent  career  with  the 
power  of  inexorable  fate. 

After  some  preliminary  remarks,  Lincoln  said  of  the 
questions  asked  him  at  Ottawa:  "I  now  propose  that 
I  will  answer  any  of  the  interrogatories  upon  condition 
that  he  will  answer  questions  from  me  not  exceeding  the 
same  number.  I  give  him  an  opportunity  to  respond. 
The  Judge  remains  silent.  I  now  say  that  I  will  answer 
his  interrogatories,  whether  he  answers  mine  or  not; 
and  that  after  I  have  done  so,  I  shall  propound  mine 
to  him." 

He    then    read    the    seven    questions    of    Douglas, 

answering  in  substance  that  he  was  not  and  never  had 

been  committed  (1)  to  the  unconditional  repeal  of  the 

fugitive  slave  law;  or  (2)  against  the  admission  of  any 

12 


178       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

more  slave  States  into  the  Union;  or  (3)  against  the 
admission  of  a  new  State  into  the  Union,  with  such  a 
Constitution  as  the  people  of  that  State  may  see  fit  to 
make;  or  (4)  in  favor  of  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the 
District  of  Columbia;  or  (5)  in  favor  of  prohibiting  the 
slave-trade  between  the  different  States.  He  was  (6) 
"  impliedly,  if  not  expressly,  pledged  to  a  belief  in  the 
right  and  duty  of  Congress  to  prohibit  slavery  in  all  the 
United  States  Territories";  and  (7)  was  not  generally 
opposed  to  honest  acquisition  of  territory;  and,  in  any 
given  case,  would  or  would  not  oppose  such  acquisition, 
according  as  he  might  think  such  acquisition  would  or 
would  not  agitate  the  slavery  question  among  ourselves. 
After  a  fuller  expression  of  his  views  on  some  of 
these  points,  he  propounded  four  questions  to  Douglas, 
as  follows: 

Question  I.  If  the  people  of  Kansas  shall,  by  means  en- 
tirely unobjectionable  in  all  other  respects,  adopt  a  State 
Constitution,  and  ask  admission  into  the  Union  under  it, 
before  they  have  the  requisite  number  of  inhabitants  accord- 
ing to  the  English  bill  —  some  ninety-three  thousand  — 
would  you  vote  to  admit  them? 

Question  2.  Can  the  people  of  a  United  States  Territory, 
in  any  lawful  way,  against  the  wish  of  any  citizen  of  the 
United  States,  exclude  slavery  from  its  limits? 

Question  3.  If  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States 
shall  decide  that  States  can  not  exclude  slavery  from  their 
limits,  are  you  in  favor  of  acquiescing  in,  adopting  and  fol- 
lowing such  decisions  as  a  rule  of  action? 

Question  4.  Are  you  in  favor  of  acquiring  additional  ter- 
ritory in  disregard  of  how  such  acquisition  may  affect  the 
nation  on  the  slavery  question? 

There  were  friends  of  Lincoln  to  whom  he  showed 
these  questions  in  advance,  who  told  him  an  affirmative 


THE  LINCOLN-DOUGLAS  DEBATE.      179 

answer  would  unhesitatingly  be  given  to  the  second  one, 
regardless  of  any  effect  except  upon  the  pending  con- 
test —  to  Douglas  the  vital  interest  of  the  moment  — 
trusting  to  his  own  skill  in  making  peace  with  the  South 
afterward.  These  anxious  advisers  thought  they  had 
persuaded  him  to  drop  it,  and  (as  one  of  them  said  to 
the  writer  a  year  or  two  later*)  were  "  thunderstruck  " 
when  they  heard  the  question  read  from  the  stand, 
feeling  that  this  insured  their  candidate's  defeat. 

When  Douglas  in  his  response  came  to  this  inter- 
rogatory, he  read  it  with  assurance  and  exultation  in 
his  voice,  promptly  answered  in  the  affirmative,  and  was 
''immensely  applauded."  It  seemed  as  if  this  were  just 
the  opportunity  he  had  longed  for.  "  It  matters  not," 
he  said,  "  what  way  the  Supreme  Court  may  hereafter 
decide  as  to  the  abstract  question  as  to  whether  slavery 
may  or  may  not  go  into  a  Territory  under  the  Consti- 
tution, the  people  have  the  lawful  means  to  introduce  it 
or  exclude  it,  as  they  please,  for  the  reason  that  slavery 
can  not  exist  a  day  or  an  hour  anywhere  unless  it  is  sup- 
ported by  local  police  regulations.  Those  police  regu- 
lations can  only  be  established  by  the  local  Legislature, 
and  if  the  people  are  opposed  to  slavery,  they  will  elect 
representatives  to  that  body  who  will,  by  unfriendly 
legislation,  effectually  prevent  the  introduction  of  it  into 
their  midst.  If,  on  the  contrary,  they  are  for  it,  their 
legislation  will  favor  its  extension.  Hence,  no  matter 
what  the  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court  may  be  on  that 
abstract  question,  still  the  right  of  the  people  to  make 
a  slave  Territory  or  a  free  Territory  is  perfect  and  com- 


*The  late  Hon.  Joseph  Medill,  of  the  Chicago  Tribune. 


180       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

plete  under  the  Nebraska  bill.  I  hope  Mr.  Lincoln 
deems  my  answer  satisfactory  on  that  point." 

Lincoln's  questioning  brought  so  explicit  and  direct 
an  answer  at  this  time  —  in  spite  of  the  Supreme  Court's 
decision — as  to  make  a  positive  impression  at  the  South. 
Douglas  in  vain  tried  afterward  to  remove  it  —  even 
quoting  from  a  speech  made  by  Jefferson  Davis  in 
Maine,  before  the  Kansas-Nebraska  act  was  passed,  as 
sustaining  his  own  view.  He  was  not  forgiven,  and 
on  no  one  did  his  Freeport  avowal  take  effect  more 
adversely  to  Douglas  than  upon  Jefferson  Davis  him- 
self. By  forcing  Douglas  to  commit  himself  upon  this 
question  in  exact  terms,  Lincoln  counted  on  widening 
the  breach  in  the  Democratic  party  to  the  advantage 
of  the  Republican  cause,  whatever  the  first  effect  on 
himself.     His  sagacity  in  this  will  not  now  be  disputed. 

The  other  three  questions  have  no  interest  in  com- 
parison with  the  second.  In  replying  to  the  first  one, 
Douglas  said  he  preferred  that  no  Territory  should  be 
admitted  as  a  State  without  a  population  equal  to  that 
fixed  as  the  ratio  of  representation,  but  numbers  suffi- 
cient for  a  slave  State  were  sufficient  for  a  free  State; 
and  Kansas  having  been  offered  admission  under  the 
Lecompton  constitution  with  only  about  one-third  of 
such  population,  he  would  consent  to  its  admission 
without  increase  as  a  free  State.  As  to  the  third  ques- 
tion, he  scouted  the  idea  of  any  such  possibility  as  it 
implied,  and  gave  no  direct  answer..  As  to  acquiring 
any  additional  territory  regardless  of  slavery  (the  fourth 
question),  he  answered  that  "  whenever  it  becomes  nec- 
essary, in  due  growth  and  progress,  to  acquire  more  ter- 
ritory," he  was  "  in  favor  of  it,  without  reference  to  the 


THE  LINCOLN-DOUGLAS  DEBATE.      181 

question  of  slavery,"  leaving  the  people  "  free  to  do  as 
they  please,  either  to  make  it  slave  or  free  territory,  as 
they  prefer."  With  the  zeal  of  an  ardent  expansionist 
he  concluded  on  this  point: 

I  tell  you,  increase  and  multiply  and  expand,  is  the  law 
of  this  nation's  existence.  You  can  not  limit  this  great  Re- 
public by  mere  boundary  lines,  saying,  "  Thus  far  shalt  thou 
go,  and  no  further."  Any  one  of  you  gentlemen  might  as 
well  say  to  a  son  twelve  years  old  that  he  is  big  enough, 
and  must  not  grow  any  larger,  and  in  order  to  prevent  his 
growth  put  a  hoop  around  him  to  keep  him  to  his  present 
size.  What  would  be  the  result?  Either  the  hoop  must 
burst  and  be  rent  asunder,  or  the  child  must  die.  So  it 
would  be  with  this  great  nation.  With  our  natural  increase, 
growing  with  a  rapidity  unknown  in  any  other  part  of  the 
globe,  with  the  tide  of  emigration  that  is  fleeing  from  des- 
potism in  the  old  world  to  seek  refuge  in  our  own,  there  is 
a  constant  torrent  pouring  into  this  country  that  requires 
more  land,  more  territory  upon  which  to  settle,  and  just  as 
fast  as  our  interests  and  our  destiny  require  additional  ter- 
ritory in  the  North,  in  the  South,  or  on  the  islands  of  t!he 
ocean,  I  am  for  it,  and  when  we  acquire  it,  will  leave  the 
people,  according  to  the  Nebraska  bill,  free  to  do  as  they 
please  on  the  subject  of  slavery  and  every  other  question. 

The  four  interrogatories  being  disposed  of,  he  as- 
sumed the  defensive  in  regard  to  his  spurious  Repub- 
lican State  platform.  Conceding  that  he  had  been  in 
error,  he  sought  to  throw  the  responsibility  on  the 
editor  of  the  Democratic  organ  at  Springfield;  but  still 
used  a  great  deal  of  special  pleading  to  show  that  the 
resolutions  of  an  Anti-Nebraska  convention  in  Kane 
County,  long  before  the  Republican  party  was  organ- 
ized in  Illinois,  somehow  compromised  Lincoln. 

In  his  rejoinder  Lincoln  said  on  this  subject: 

At  the  introduction  of  the  Nebraska  policy  we  believed 
there  was  a  new  era  being  introduced  in  the  history  of  the 


1 82       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

Republic  which  tended  to  the  spread  and  perpetuation  of 
slavery.     But  in  our  opposition  to  that  measure  we   did 

not  agree  with  one  another  in  everything We  at 

last  met  together  in  1856,  from  all  parts  of  the  State,  and  we 
agreed  upon  a  platform.  .  .  .  And  I  say  here  to  you,  if 
any  one  expects  of  me  —  in  the  case  of  my  election  —  that 
I  will  do  anything  not  signified  by  our  Republican  platform 
and  my  answers  here  to-day,  I  tell  you  very  frankly,  that 
person  will  be  deceived.  I  do  not  ask  for  the  vote  of  any 
one  who  supposes  that  I  have  secret  purposes  or  pledges 
that  I  dare  not  speak  out.  Can  not  the  Judge  be  satisfied? 
...  I  tell  you  what  he  is  afraid  of.  He  is  afraid  we'll 
all  pull  together.  This  is  what  alarms  him  more  than  any- 
thing else.  For  my  part,  I  do  hope  that  all  of  us  enter- 
taining a  common  sentiment  in  opposition  to  what  appears 
to  us  a  design  to  nationalize  and  perpetuate  slavery  will 
waive  minor  differences  on  questions  which  either  belong  to 
the  dead  past  or  the  distant  future,  and  all  pull  together  in 
this  struggle. 

The  most  notable  new  point  made  in  this  closing 
half-hour  speech  was  in  connection  with  his  rejoinder 
to  the  attempt  of  Douglas  to  explain  away  a  speech  of 
his  in  the  Senate,  construed  by  Lincoln  as  charging  the 
Administration  with  aiming  a  "  fatal  blow  "  at  the  sov- 
ereignty of  the  States.  After  presenting  documentary 
evidence  in  regard  to  the  "  fatal  blow  "  feature  of  the 
Lecompton  quarrel,  Lincoln  continued: 

But  the  Judge's  eye  is  farther  south  now.  Then  it  was 
very  peculiarly  and  decidedly  north.  His  hope  rested  on  the 
idea  of  visiting  the  great  "  Black  Republican  "  party  and 
making  it  the  tail  of  his  new  kite.  He  knows  he  was  then 
expecting  from  day  to  day  to  turn  Republican  and  place 
himself  at  the  head  of  our  organization.  He  has  found  that 
these  despised  "  Black  Republicans "  estimate  him  by  a 
standard  which  he  has  taught  them  none  too  well.  Hence 
he  is  crawling  back  into  his  old  camp,  and  you  will  find 
him   eventually   installed   in   full    fellowship   among   those 


THE  LINCOLN-DOUGLAS  DEBATE.      183 

whom  he  was  then  battling,  and  with  whom  he  now  pretends 
to  be  at  such  fearful  variance. 

The  third  joint  discussion,  on  the  15th  of  September, 
was  at  Jonesboro  —  fairly  "  down  in  Egypt  "  at  last. 
Douglas  led  off  with  his  "  Prior  to  1854  this  country 
was  divided  into  two  great  political  parties,"  and  so 
forth,  continuing  on  this  line  until  he  digressed  to  say 
of  his  opponents  in  the  Anti-Nebraska  canvass  of  the 
year  named: 

They  were  Republicans  or  Abolitionists  in  the  North, 
anti-Nebraska  men  down  about  Springfield,  and  in  this 
neighborhood  they  contented  themselves  with  talking  about 
the  inexpediency  of  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise. 
In  the  extreme  northern  counties  they  brought  out  men  to 
canvass  the  State  whose  complexions  suited  their  political 
creed,  and  hence  Fred  Douglass,  the  negro,  was  to  be  found 
there,  following  General  Cass,  and  attempting  to  speak  on 
behalf  of  Lincoln,  Trumbull  and  Abolitionism  against  that 
illustrious  Senator.  Why,  they  brought  Fred  Douglas  to 
Freeport,  when  I  was  addressing  a  meeting  there,  in  a 
carriage  driven  by  the  white  owner,  the  negro  sitting  inside 
with  the  white  lady  and  her  daughter.  When  I  got  through 
canvassing  the  northern  counties  that  year,  and  progressed 
as  far  south  as  Springfield,  I  was  met  and  opposed  in  dis- 
cussion by  Lincoln,  Love  joy,  Trumbull  and  Sidney  Breese, 
who  were  on  one  side.  Father  Giddings,  the  high-priest  of 
Abolitionism,  had  just  been  there,  and  Chase  came  about 
the  time  I  left. 

Again  resuming  his  staple  speech  for  a  while,  he 
came  to  the  Republican  State  Convention  of  the  pre- 
vious June,  and  went  on  through  the  old  criticism  of 
Lincoln's  speech  on  that  occasion.  This  brought  the 
Senator  to  the  close  of  his  hour.  In  his  reply  Lincoln 
said  at  the  outset: 

There  is  very  much  in  the  principles  that  Judge  Douglas 
has  here  enunciated  that  I  most  cordially  approve,  and  over 


1 84       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

which  I  shall  have  no  controversy  with  him.  In  so  far  as 
he  has  insisted  that  all  the  States  have  the  right  to  do  ex- 
actly as  they  please  about  all  their  domestic  relations,  includ- 
ing that  of  slavery,  I  agree  entirely  with  him.  He  places  me 
wrong  in  spite  of  all  I  can  tell  him,  though  I  repeat  it  again 
and  again,  insisting  that  I  have  no  difference  with  him  upon 
this  subject.  I  have  made  a  great  many  speeches,  some  of 
which  have  been  printed,  and  it  will  be  utterly  impossible  for 
him  to  find  anything  that  I  have  ever  put  in  print  contrary 
to  what  I  now  say  upon  this  subject. 

As  to  the  indorsement  of  the  Compromise  of  1850 
by  the  Whigs  as  a  finality,  he  said: 

I  understand  the  Judge  to  be  altogether  right  about  that ; 
I  understand  that  part  of  the  history  of  the  country  as  stated 
by  him  to  be  correct.  I  recollect  that  I,  as  a  member  of 
that  party,  acquiesced  in  that  Compromise.  I  recollect  in 
the  Presidential  election  which  followed,  when  we  had  Gen- 
eral Scott  up  for  the  Presidency,  Judge  Douglas  was  around 
berating  us  Whigs  as  Abolitionists,  precisely  as  he  does  to- 
day —  not  a  bit  of  difference.  I  have  often  heard  him.  We 
could  do  nothing  when  the  old  Whig  party  was  alive  that 
was  not  Abolitionism ;  but  it  has  got  an  extremely  good  name 
since  it  has  passed  away.  ...  I  have  the  report  that 
Judge  Douglas  first  brought  into  Congress  at  the  time  of 
the  introduction  of  the  Nebraska  bill,  which  in  its  original 
form  did  not  repeal  the  Missouri  Compromise,  and  he  there 
expressly  stated  that  he  had  foreborne  to  do  so  because  it 
had  not  been  done  by  the  Compromise  of  1850.  I  close  this 
part  of  the  discussion  on  my  part  by  asking  him  the  ques- 
tion again,  "  Why,  when  we  had  peace  under  the  Missouri 
Compromise,  could  you  not  have  let  it  alone?" 

He  then  replied  briefly  to  the  onslaught  on  his  16th 
of  June  speech,  and  proceeded  to  notice  his  opponent's 
continual  hammering  at  a  set  of  extreme  anti-slavery 
resolutions  with  which  neither  Lincoln  nor  the  Repub- 
lican party  as  such  had  anything  to  do.  As  a  fair 
set-off  to  what  was  in  itself  so  unfair,  he  produced  the 


THE  LINCOLN-DOUGLAS  DEBATE.      185 

equally  radical  commitments  of  two  regular  Democratic 
Congressional  candidates  in  Northern  Illinois,  even  in 
1850  —  both  these  candidates  being  personal  friends  of 
Douglas,  both  later  helped  by  him  to  Federal  offices, 
and  both  to-day  supporting  him.  He  also  cited  "  a  set 
of  resolutions  passed  by  a  Democratic  State  Convention 
in  Judge  Douglas's  own  good  old  State  of  Vermont, 
that,"  said  Lincoln,  "  I  think  ought  to  be  good  for  him, 
too  "  —  resolutions  declaring  that  "  liberty  is  a  right 
inherent  and  inalienable  in  man,  and  that  herein  all  men 
are  equal";  that  slavery  should  be  prohibited  in  the 
Territories  and  abolished  in  the  District  of  Columbia; 
"  that  no  more  slave  States  should  be  admitted  into  the 
Federal  Union,"  and  "  that  the  Government  ought  to 
return  to  its  ancient  policy,  not  to  extend,  nationalize, 
or  encourage,  but  to  limit,  localize,  and  discourage 
slavery." 

He  also  gave  considerable  time  to  exposing  the 
inconsistencies  to  which  Douglas  had  committed  him- 
self by  his  answer  to  the  second  Freeport  question,  and 
subsequently  added  a  fifth  question  —  touching  a  vital 
point: 

Question  5.  If  the  slave-holding  citizens  of  a  United 
States  Territory  should  need  and  demand  Congressional  leg- 
islation for  the  protection  of  their  slave  property  in  such  Ter- 
ritory, would  you,  as  a  member  of  Congress,  vote  for  or 
against  such  legislation? 

Noticing  some  bantering  remarks  of  Douglas  at 
Joliet,  after  the  Freeport  meeting,  Lincoln  continued: 

There  is  another  thing  .  >  .  that  alarmed  me  very 
greatly  —  as  he  states  it  —  that  he  was  going  to  "trot  me 
down  to  Egypt."    Thereby  he  would  have  you  to  infer  that 


186       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

I  would  not  come  to  Egypt  unless  he  forced  me  —  that  I 
could  not  be  got  there,  unless  he,  giant-like,  had  hauled  me 
down  there.  That  statement  he  makes,  too,  in  the  teeth  of 
the  knowledge  that  I  had  made  the  stipulation  to  come 
down  here,  and  that  he  himself  had  been  very  reluctant 
to  enter  into  the  stipulation.  .  .  .  Why,  I  know  this  peo- 
ple better  than  he  does.  I  was  raised  just  a  little  east  of 
here.  I  am  a  part  of  this  people.  But  the  Judge  was  raised 
further  north,  and  perhaps  he  has  some  horrid  idea  of  what 
this  people  might  be  induced  to  do.  But  really  I  have 
talked  about  this  matter  perhaps  longer  than  I  ought,  for 
it  is  no  great  thing,  and  yet  the  smallest  are  often  the  most 
difficult  things  to  deal  with. 

The  most  interesting  part  of  the  closing  speech  of 
Douglas  at  Jonesboro  was  the  reply  to  Lincoln's  fifth 
question  —  with  its  preceding  bit  of  autobiography: 

Mr.  Lincoln  attempts  to  cover  up  and  get  over  his  Aboli- 
tionism by  telling  you  that  he  was  raised  a  little  east  of  you, 
beyond  the  Wabash  in  Indiana,  and  he  thinks  that  makes  a 
mighty  sound  and  good  man  of  him  on  all  these  questions. 
I  do  not  know  that  the  place  where  a  man  is  born  or  raised 
has  much  to  do  with  his  political  principles.  The  worst 
Abolitionists  I  have  ever  known  in  Illinois  have  been  men 
who  have  sold  their  slaves  in  Alabama  and  Kentucky,  and 
have  come  here  and  turned  Abolitionists  whilst  spending 
the  money  they  got  for  the  negroes  they  sold,  and  I  do 
not  know  that  an  Abolitionist  from  Indiana  or  Kentucky 
ought  to  have  any  more  credit  because  he  was  born  and 
raised  among  the  slave-holders.  .  .  .  True,  I  was  not  born 
out  West  here.  I  was  born  away  down  in  Yankee  land,  I 
was  born  in  a  valley  in  Vermont,  with  the  high  mountains 
around  me.  I  love  the  old  green  mountains  and  valleys  of 
Vermont,  where  I  was  born,  and  where  I  played  in  my  child- 
hood. I  went  up  to  visit  them  some  seven  or  eight  years 
ago  for  the  first  time  for  twenty-odd  years.  When  I  got 
there  they  treated  me  very  kindly.  They  invited  me  to  the 
Commencement  of  their  college,  placed  me  on  the  seats  with 
their  distinguished  guests,  and  conferred  upon  me  the  degree 
of  LL.D.  in  Latin  (Doctor  of  Laws)  the  same  as  they  did 


THE  LINCOLN-DOUGLAS  DEBATE.      187 

old  Hickory,  at  Cambridge,  many  years  ago,  and  I  give  you 
my  word  and  honor  I  understood  just  as  much  of  the  Latin 
as  he  did.  When  they  got  through  conferring  the  honorary 
degree,  they  called  upon  me  for  a  speech,  and  I  got  up  with 
my  heart  full  and  swelling  with  gratitude  for  their  kindness, 
and  I  said  to  them:  "My  friends,  Vermont  is  the  most 
glorious  spot  on  the  face  of  this  globe  for  a  man  to  be  born 
in,  provided  he  emigrates  when  he  is  very  young."  I  emi- 
grated when  I  was  very  young.  I  came  out  here  when  I 
was  a  boy,  and  I  found  my  mind  liberalized,  and  my  opinions 
enlarged  when  I  got  on  these  broad  prairies,  with  only  the 
heavens  to  bound  my  vision,  instead  of  having  them  circum- 
scribed by  the  little  narrow  ridges  that  surrounded  the  valley 
where  I  was  born.  But  I  discard  all  flings  of  the  land  where 
a  man  was  born.  I  wish  to  be  judged  by  my  principles,  by 
those  great  public  measures  and  constitutional  principles 
upon  which  the  peace,  the  happiness  and  the  perpetuity  of 
this  Republic  now  rest. 

Mr.  Lincoln  has  framed  another  question,  propounded 
it  to  me,  and  desired  my  answer.  ...  It  is  as  follows: 
"  If  the  slave-holding  citizens  of  a  United  States  Territory 
should  need  and  demand  Congressional  legislation  for  the 
protection  of  their  slave  property  in  such  Territory,  would 
you,  as  a  member  of  Congress,  vote  for  or  against  such 
legislation?"  I  answer  him  that  it  is  a  fundamental  article 
in  the  Democratic  creed  that  there  should  be  non-interference 
and  non-intervention  by  Congress  with  slavery  in  the  States 
or  Territories.  Mr.  Lincoln  could  have  found  an  answer 
to  his  question  in  the  Cincinnati  platform,  if  he  had  desired 
it.  The  Democratic  party  have  always  stood  by  that  great 
principle  of  non-interference  and  non-intervention  by  Con- 
gress with  slavery  in  the  States  and  Territories  alike,  and 
I  stand  on  that  platform  now. 

The  matter  was  to  be  heard  from  further  in  a  certain 
convention,  ere  long  to  assemble  at  Charleston,  South 
Carolina.  The  Senator's  answer,  like  that  to  Lin- 
coln's second  question  at  Freeport,  found  record  in  the 
Southern  note-book. 

The   champions   had   their   fourth   encounter  three 


188        LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

days  later  at  Charleston,  in  Coles  County.  The  audi- 
ence was  a  very  large  one,  and  after  requesting  that  "  as 
profound  silence  be  observed  as  possible, "  Lincoln  said: 

While  I  was  at  the  hotel  to-day  an  elderly  gentleman 
called  upon  me  to  know  whether  I  was  really  in  favor  of 
producing  a  perfect  equality  between  the  negroes  and  white 
people.  While  I  had  not  proposed  to  myself  on  this  occasion 
to  say  much  on  that  subject,  yet  as  the  question  was  asked 
me  I  thought  I  will  occupy  perhaps  five  minutes  in  saying 
something  in  regard  to  it.  I  will  say  then  that  I  am  not, 
nor  ever  have  been,  in  favor  of  bringing  about  in  any  way 
the  social  and  political  equality  of  the  white  and  black  races 
—  that  I  am  not,  nor  ever  have  been,  in  favor  of  making 
voters  or  jurors  of  negroes,  nor  of  qualifying  them  to  hold 
office,  nor  to  intermarry  with  white  people;  and  I  will  say 
in  addition  to  this  that  there  is  a  physical  difference  between 
the  white  and  black  races  which  I  believe  will  forever  forbid 
the  two  races  living  together  on  terms  of  social  and  political 
equality.  And  inasmuch  as  they  can  not  so  live,  while  they 
do  remain  together  there  must  be  the  position  of  superior 
and  inferior,  and  I  as  much  as  any  other  man  am  in  favor 
of  having  the  superior  position  assigned  to  the  white  race. 
I  say  upon  this  occasion  I  do  not  perceive  that  because  the 
white  man  is  to  have  the  superior  position  the  negro  should 
be  denied  everything.  I  do  not  understand  that  because  I 
do  not  want  a  negro  woman  for  a  slave,  I  must  necessarily 
want  her  for  a  wife.  My  understanding  is  that  I  can  just 
let  her  alone.  I  am  now  in  my  fiftieth  year,  and  I  certainly 
never  have  had  a  black  woman  for  either  a  slave  or  a  wife. 
So  it  seems  to  me  quite  possible  for  us  to  get  along  without 
either  making  slaves  or  wives  of  negroes.  I  will  add  to 
this  that  I  have  never  seen,  to  my  knowledge,  a  man,  woman 
or  child  who  was  in  favor  of  producing  a  perfect  equality, 
social  and  political,  between  negroes  and  white  men.    .    .    . 

The  remainder  of  the  speech  must  have  been  rather 
a  surprise,  inasmuch  as  Lincoln,  having  the  opening, 
devoted  his  time  chiefly  to  a  question  that  had  arisen 
between  Senators  Trumbull  and  Douglas  during  this 


THE  LINCOLN-DOUGLAS  DEBATE.      189 

canvass,  concerning  the  latter's  action  in  regard  to 
certain  Kansas-Nebraska  legislation,  and  about  mat- 
ters growing  out  of  this  controversy.  It  had  become 
an  angry  wrangle,  in  which  harsh  words  had  been  used, 
and  Lincoln  came  to  the  support  of  Trumbull  with  doc- 
umentary evidence.  Douglas,  disconcerted  and  angry, 
made  a  reply  that  was  evidently  not  very  satisfactory 
to  himself,  and  presently  turned  to  his  story  of  the 
two  parties  "  prior  to  1854."  Nor  is  there  in  Lincoln's 
rejoinder  any  new  matter  that  is  specially  memorable. 
The  fifth  discussion  was  at  Galesburg,  in  a  more 
northern  latitude,  on  the  7th  of  October.  Douglas  had 
the  opening,  and  plied  his  flail  with  the  usual  vigor  to 
the  oft-beaten  straw.  He  was  aggressive  and  adroit, 
making  one  of  his  ablest  speeches  to  an  audience  more 
largely  in  sympathy  with  his  opponent  than  he  had 
faced  at  the  last  two  meetings.  Lincoln  began  by  say- 
ing: "A  very  large  portion  of  the  speech  which  Judge 
Douglas  has  addressed  to  you  has  previously  been 
delivered  and  put  in  print."  The  audience  laughed  and 
cheered,  but  he  continued:  "  I  do  not  mean  that  for  a 
hit  upon  the  Judge  at  all.  If  I  had  not  been  inter- 
rupted, I  was  going  to  say  that  such  an  answer  as  I  was 
able  to  make  to  a  very  large  portion  of  it  had  already 
been  more  than  once  made  and  published." 

I  make  these  remarks  [he  continued]  for  the  purpose  of 
excusing  myself  for  not  passing  over  the  entire  ground  that 
the  Judge  has  traversed.  ...  I  believe  the  entire  records 
of  the  world,  from  the  date  of  the  Declaration  of  Indepen- 
dence up  to  within  three  years  ago,  may  be  searched  in 
vain  for  one  single  affirmation,  from  one  single  man,  that 
the  negro  was  not  included  in  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence; I  think  I  may  defy  Judge  Douglas  to  show  that 


190       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

he  ever  said  so,  that  Washington  ever  said  so,  that  any  Pres- 
ident ever  said  so,  that  any  member  of  Congress  ever  said 
so,  or  that  any  living  man  upon  the  whole  earth  ever  said 
so,  until  the  necessities  of  the  present  policy  of  the  Dem- 
ocratic party,  in  regard  to  slavery,  had  to  invent  that  affirma- 
tion. And  I  will  remind  Judge  Douglas  and  this  audience 
that  while  Mr.  Jefferson  was  the  owner  of  slaves,  as  un- 
doubtedly he  was,  in  speaking  upon  this  very  subject,  he 
used  the  strong  language  that  "  he  trembled  for  his  country 
when  he  remembered  that  God  was  just;"  and  I  will  offer 
the  highest  premium  in  my  power  to  Judge  Douglas  if  he 
will  show  that  he,  in  all  his  life,  ever  uttered  a  sentiment 
at  all  akin  to  that  of  Jefferson.    .    .    . 

We  have  a  Republican  State  platform,  laid  down  in 
Springfield  in  June  last,  stating  our  position  all  the  way 
through  the  questions  before  the  country.  We  are  now 
far  advanced  in  this  canvass.  Judge  Douglas  and  I  have 
made  perhaps  forty  speeches  apiece,  and  we  have  now  for  the 
fifth  time  met  face  to  face  in  debate,  and  up  to  this  day  I 
have  not  found  either  Judge  Douglas  or  any  friend  of  his 
taking  hold  of  the  Republican  platform  or  laying  his  finger 
upon  anything  in  it  that  is  wrong.  I  ask  you  all  to  recollect 
that. 

Coming  immediately  after  this  are  the  following 
quite  suggestive  and  even  singularly  prophetic  words: 

Judge  Douglas  turns  away  from  the  platform  of  prin- 
ciples to  the  fact  that  he  can  find  people  somewhere  who 
will  not  allow  us  to  announce  those  principles.  If  he  had 
great  confidence  that  our  principles  were  wrong,  he  would 
take  hold  of  them  and  demonstrate  them  to  be  wrong.  But 
he  does  not  do  so.  The  only  evidence  he  has  of  their  being 
wrong  is  in  the  fact  that  there  are  people  who  won't  allow 
us  to  preach  them.  I  ask  again,  Is  that  the  way  to  test 
the  soundness  of  a  doctrine  ?  I  ask  his  attention  also  to  the 
fact  that  by  the  rule  of  nationality  he  is  himself  fast  becom- 
ing sectional.  I  ask  his  attention  to  the  fact  that  his 
speeches  would  not  go  as  current  now  south  of  the  Ohio 
River  as  they  have  formerly  gone  there.  I  ask  his  atten- 
tion to  the  fact  that  he  felicitates  himself  to-day  that  all  the 


THE  LINCOLN-DOUGLAS  DEBATE.      191 

Democrats  of  the  free  States  are  agreeing  with  him,  while 
he  omits  to  tell  us  that  the  Democrats  of  any  slave  State 
agree  with  him.  If  he  has  not  thought  of  this,  I  commend 
to  his  consideration  the  evidence  in  his  own  declaration,  on 
this  day,  of  his  becoming  sectional  too.  I  see  it  rapidly  ap- 
proaching. Whatever  may  be  the  result  of  this  ephemeral 
contest  between  Judge  Douglas  and  myself,  I  see  the  day 
rapidly  approaching  when  his  pill  of  sectionalism,  which  he 
has  been  thrusting  down  the  throats  of  Republicans  for 
years  past,  will  be  crowded  down  his  own  throat. 

At  Quincy,  October  13th,  Lincoln  went  over  the 
chief  points  of  controversy  with  a  calm  strength,  pre- 
cision, and  force,  unsurpassed  in  any  previous  effort. 
The  fundamental  differences  between  the  respective  atti- 
tudes of  the  two  combatants  were  never  brought  out  by 
him  more  pointedly,  in  few  words,  than  in  the  following 
passages: 

We  have  in  this  nation  this  element  of  domestic  slavery. 
It  is  a  matter  of  absolute  certainty  that  it  is  a  disturbing  ele- 
ment. It  is  the  opinion  of  all  great  men  who  have  expressed 
an  opinion  upon  it  that  it  is  a  dangerous  element.  We  keep 
up  a  controversy  in  regard  to  it.  That  controversy  neces- 
sarily springs  from  difference  of  opinion,  and  if  we  can  learn 
exactly  —  can  reduce  to  the  lowest  elements  —  what  that 
difference  of  opinion  is,  we  perhaps  shall  be  better  prepared 
for  discussing  the  different  systems  of  policy  that  we  would 
propose  in  regard  to  that  disturbing  element.  I  suggest  that 
the  difference  of  opinion,  reduced  to  its  lowest  terms,  is  no 
other  than  the  difference  between  the  men  who  think  slavery 
wrong  and  those  who  do  not  think  it  wrong.  The  Repub- 
lican party  think  it  wrong  —  we  think  it  a  moral,  a  social 
and  a  political  wrong.  We  think  it  a  wrong  not  confining 
itself  merely  to  the  persons  or  the  States  where  it  exists,  but 
that  it  is  wrong  in  its  tendency,  to  say  the  least,  that  extends 
itself  to  the  existence  of  the  whole  nation.  Because  we  think 
it  wrong,  we  propose  a  course  of  policy  that  shall  deal  with 


192       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

it  as  a  wrong.  We  deal  with  it  as  with  any  other  wrong, 
in  so  far  as  we  can  prevent  its  growing  any  larger,  and  so 
deal  with  it  that  in  the  run  of  time  there  may  be  some 
promise  of  an  end  to  it.  We  have  a  due  regard  to  the  actual 
presence  of  it  amongst  us  and  the  difficulties  of  getting  rid 
of  it  in  any  satisfactory  way,  and  to  all  the  constitutional 
obligations  thrown  about  it.  .  .  .  Where  we  suppose  we 
have  the  constitutional  right,  we  restrain  ourselves  in  ref- 
erence to  the  actual  existence  of  the  institution  and  the  diffi- 
culties thrown  about  it.  We  also  oppose  it  as  an  evil  so  far 
as  it  seeks  to  spread  itself.  We  insist  on  the  policy  that  shall 
restrict  it  to  its  present  limits.  We  don't  suppose  that  in 
doing  this  we  violate  anything  due  to  the  actual  presence  of 
the  institution,  or  anything  due  to  the  constitutional  guar- 
antees thrown  around  it. 

We  oppose  the  Dred  Scott  decision  in  a  certain  way, 
upon  which  I  ought  perhaps  to  address  you  a  few  words. 
We  do  not  propose  that  when  Dred  Scott  has  been  decided 
to  be  a  slave  by  the  Court,  we,  as  a  mob,  will  decide  him  to 
be  free.  We  do  not  propose  that,  when  any  other  one,  or 
one  thousand,  shall  be  decided  by  that  Court  to  be  slaves,  we 
will  in  any  violent  way  disturb  the  rights  of  property  thus 
settled;  but  we  nevertheless  do  oppose  that  decision  as  a 
political  rule,  which  shall  be  binding  on  the  voter  to  vote 
for  nobody  who  thinks  it  wrong  —  which  shall  be  binding  on 
the  members  of  Congress  or  the  President  to  favor  no  meas- 
ure that  does  not  actually  concur  with  the  principles  of  that 
decision.  We  do  not  propose  to  be  bound  by  it  as  a  polit- 
ical rule  in  that  way,  because  we  think  it  lays  the  foundation 
not  merely  of  enlarging  and  spreading  out  what  we  con- 
sider an  evil,  but  it  lays  the  foundation  for  spreading  that 
evil  into  the  States  themselves.  We  propose  so  resisting  it 
as  to  have  it  reversed  if  we  can,  and  a  new  judicial  rule 
established  upon  this  subject.    .    .    . 

I  will  say  now  that  there  is  a  sentiment  in  the  country 
contrary  to  me  —  a  sentiment  which  holds  that  slavery  is 
not  wrong,  and  therefore  it  goes  for  the  policy  that  does 
not  propose  dealing  with  it  as  a  wrong.  .  .  .  The  leading 
man  —  I  think  I  may  do  my  friend  Judge  Douglas  the  honor 
of  calling  him  such  —  advocating  the  present  Democratic 


THE  LINCOLN-DOUGLAS  DEBATE.      193 

policy,  never  himself  says  it  is  wrong.  He  has  the  high  dis- 
tinction, so  far  as  I  know,  of  never  having  said  slavery  is 
either  right  or  wrong.  Almost  everybody  else  says  one  or 
the  other,  but  the  Judge  never  does.  .  .  .  When  Judge 
Douglas  says  that  whoever  or  whatever  community  wants 
slaves,  they  have  a  right  to  have  them,  he  is  perfectly  logical 
if  there  is  nothing  wrong  in  the  institution ;  but  if  you  admit 
that  it  is  wrong,  he  can  not  logically  say  that  anybody  has  a 
right  to  do  wrong. 

Only  two  days  later,  October  15th,  they  met  at 
Alton.  Douglas  began  with  his  customary  treatment 
of  Lincoln's  "  house-divided  speech,"  without  going 
back  "  prior  to  1854."  He  made  much,  as  usual,  of 
his  great  principle  of  "  popular  sovereignty "  and  of 
his  opposition  to  the  Lecompton  Constitution,  which 
the  people  of  Kansas  had  voted  down  some  time  after 
this  canvass  opened.  "  I  will  never  violate  or  abandon 
that  doctrine,"  said  Douglas  heroically,  "  if  I  have  to 
stand  alone.  I  have  resisted  the  blandishments  and 
threats  of  power  on  the  one  side,  and  seduction  on 
the  other,  and  have  stood  immovably  for  that  prin- 
ciple, fighting  for  it  when  assaulted  byv  Northern  mobs 
or  threatened  by  Southern  hostility." 

He  took  special  pains  to  win  the  support  of  "  old- 
line  Whigs,"  and  sought  to  turn  to  the  best  account  the 
opposition  of  Lincoln  to  Henry  Clay's  nomination  in 
1848.  General  Singleton,  a  supporter  of  Clay  in  the 
Philadelphia  Convention  of  that  year,  was  now  actively 
opposing  Lincoln.     Said  Douglas: 

Have  you  read  General  Singleton's  speech  at  Jackson- 
ville? You  know  that  General  Singleton  was  for  twenty- 
five  years  the  confidential  friend  of  Henry  Clay  in  Illinois, 


13 


194       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

and  he  testified  that  in  1847,  when  the  Constitutional  Conven- 
tion of  this  State  was  in  session,  the  Whig  members  were 
invited  to  a  Whig  caucus  at  the  house  of  Mr.  Lincoln's 
brother-in-law,  where  Mr.  Lincoln  proposed  to  throw  Henry 
Clay  overboard  and  take  up  General  Taylor  in  his  place,  giv- 
ing as  his  reason  that  if  the  Whigs  did  not  take  up  General 
Taylor,  the  Democrats  would.  Singleton  testifies  that  Lin- 
coln, in  that  speech,  urged  as  another  reason  for  throwing 
Henry  Clay  overboard  that  the  Whigs  had  fought  long 
enough  for  principle  and  ought  to  begin  to  fight  for  success. 
.  .  .  Now,  Mr.  Lincoln  tells  you  that  he  is  an  old-time  Clay 
Whig! 

While  there  was  still  no  lack  of  belligerent  audacity 
on  the  part  of  Douglas,  one  can  almost  certainly  detect 
symptoms  of  an  undercurrent  of  despondent  dread  in 
his  mind  at  this  moment.  He  had  already  heard  South- 
ern responses  to  avowals  drawn  from  him  by  the  second 
question  of  Lincoln's  Freeport  catechism  and  by  the 
supplementary  fifth  question  at  Jonesboro.  Though, 
with  the  advantages  secured  by  an  unequal  apportion- 
ment and  by  the  number  of  Democratic  Senators  hold- 
ing over,  he  might  feel  reasonably  secure  of  retaining 
his  present  place,  he  could  not  but  have  seriously  laid 
to  heart  the  monition  his  opponent  had  given  him  at 
Galesburg. 

Notably  enough,  in  his  impressive  speech  at  Alton 
Lincoln  used  these  words:  "  Whenever  the  issue  can  be 
distinctly  made,  and  all  extraneous  matter  thrown  out, 
so  that  men  can  fairly  see  the  real  difference  between  the 
parties,  this  controversy  will  soon  be  settled,  and  it  will 
be  done  peaceably,  too.  There  will  be  no  war,  no  vio- 
lence. It  will  be  placed  again  where  the  wisest  and  best 
men  of  the  world  placed  it." 


THE  LINCOLN-DOUGLAS  DEBATE.      195 

The  debate  closed  at  the  place  where,  a  few  months 
after  Lincoln's  anti-slavery  protest  was  entered  on  the 
Assembly  journal  at  Vandalia,  Elijah  P.  Lovejoy  came 
to  a  violent  death  for  his  hatred  of  slavery.  When  the 
two  competitors  stepped  down  from  the  stand  and  went 
their  ways,  two  weeks  remained  before  the  decisive  vote. 
Douglas  received  a  small  but  sufficient  majority  of  the 
Legislature  and  a  re-election.  Lincoln  had  in  the  entire 
popular  vote  a  majority  of  about  four  thousand. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

1859-  J86o. 

On  the  Verge  of  a  New  Epoch  —  Letters  and  Addresses  — 
Incidents  and  Portents  —  John  Brown  at  Har- 
per's Ferry  —  Chaos  in  Congress. 

We  know  little  of  what  was  passing  through  Lin- 
coln's mind  "during  the  autumn  and  winter  following 
the  great  Senatorial  contest.  Now  as  ever  his  reserve 
had  depths  which  none  of  his  friends  could  sound,  but 
of  matters  at  the  surface  he  spoke  with  frankness  and 
freedom.  To  Mr.  Judd  he  wrote  on  the  15th  of  Novem- 
ber: "  Doubtless  you  have  suspected  for  some  time  that 
I  had  entertained  a  personal  wish  for  a  term  in  the 
United  States  Senate,  and  had  the  suspicion  taken  the 
shape  of  a  direct  charge,  I  think  I  could  not  have  truth- 
fully denied  it.  But  let  the  past  as  nothing  be!  For 
the  future,  my  view  is  that  the  fight  must  go  on.  .  .  . 
We  have  now  one  hundred  and  twenty-four  thousand 
clean  Republican  votes.  That  '  pile  '  is  worth  keeping 
together.  It  will  elect  a  State  ticket  two  years  hence. 
In  that  day  I  shall  fight  in  the  ranks,  and  shall  be  in  no 
one's  way  for  any  of  the  places." 

Lincoln  was  again  busy  in  the  courts.  He  had 
law  cases  in  the  year  1859  in  Missouri,  Wisconsin  and 
Indiana,  besides  the  many  in  his  own  State.  There  may 
have  been  to  his  mind  a  touch  of  humor  —  a  certain 
pathos  also  —  in  the  fact  that,  besides  professional  calls, 

(196) 


ON  THE  VERGE  OF  A  NEW  EPOCH.  197 

he  had  a  number  of  invitations  to  lecture.  He  actually 
prepared  a  discourse  on  "  Discoveries  and  Inventions," 
with  which  he  filled  three  appointments  in  February  and 
March.  Aiming  at  a  more  lively  and  "  rattling  "  style 
than  he  was  accustomed  to  in  his  political  speeches,  he 
was  less  natural  and  less  successful  on  the  platform  than 
on  the  stump. 

The  city  election  in  Chicago,  on  the  1st  of  March, 
was  carried  by  the  Republicans.  Lincoln  was  there, 
and  spoke  briefly  after  the  result  was  known,  the  same 
night.  "  I  am  exceedingly  happy,"  he  said,  "  to  meet 
you  under  such  cheering  auspices  on  this  occasion  — 
the  first  on  which  I  have  appeared  before  an  audience 
since  the  campaign  last  year."  He  returned  thanks  for 
the  gallant  support  that  the  Republicans  of  Chicago 
and  of  the  State  had  given  to  the  common  cause  in 
the  late  "momentous  struggle  in  Illinois."  Continuing, 
he  said: 

I  remember  in  that  canvass  but  one  instance  of  dissatis- 
faction with  my  course,  and  I  allude  to  that  now  not  for 
the  purpose  of  producing  any  unpleasant  feeling,  but  in 
order  to  help  get  rid  of  the  point  upon  which  that  matter 
of  disagreement  or  dissatisfaction  arose.  I  understand  that 
in  some  speeches  I  made  I  said  something,  or  was  supposed 
to  have  said  something,  that  some  very  good  people,  as  I 
really  believe  them  to  be,  commented  upon  unfavorably,  and 
said  that  rather  than  support  one  holding  such  sentiments 
as  I  had  expressed,  the  real  friends  of  liberty  could  afford 
to  wait  a  while.  I  don't  want  to  say  anything  that  shall 
excite  unkind  feeling,  and  I  mention  this  simply  to  say  that 
I  am  afraid  of  the  effect  of  that  sort  of  argument.  I  do  not 
doubt  that  it  comes  from  good  men,  but  I  am  afraid  of  the 
result  upon  organized  action  when  great  results  are  in  view, 
if  any  of  us  allow  ourselves  to  seek  out  minor  points;  on 
which  there  may  be  a  difference  of  views  as  to  policy, 'and, 


198       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

right,  and  let  them  keep  us  from  uniting  in  action  upon  a 
great  principle  in  a  cause  on  which  we  all  agree. 

Immediately  after  the  November  election  there  had 
been  in  the  press  of  Illinois,  and  in  private  correspond- 
ence, suggestions  of  his  nomination  for  the  Presidency. 
This  possibility  was  seen  by  many  thinking  men  more 
clearly  than  the  managers  of  political  conventions  were 
generally  aware.  The  fact  is  discernible,  though  not 
directly  suggested,  in  the  invitation  he  received  to 
attend  a  commemoration  of  Jefferson's  birthday  at 
Boston.     He  replied  (April  6,  1859): 

Your  kind  note,  inviting  me  to  attend  a  festival  in  Boston 
on  the  13th  inst,  in  honor  of  the  birthday  of  Thomas  Jeffer- 
son, was  duly  received.  My  engagements  are  such  that  I 
can  not  attend. 

Bearing  in  mind  that  about  seventy  years  ago  two  great 
political  parties  were  first  formed  in  this  country;  that 
Thomas  Jefferson  was  the  head  of  one  of  them  and  Boston 
the  headquarters  of  the  other,  it  is  both  curious  and  interest- 
ing that  those  supposed  to  descend  politically  from  the  party 
opposed  to  Jefferson  should  now  be  celebrating  his  birthday 
in  their  own  original  seat  of  empire,  while  those  claiming 
political  descent  from  him  have  nearly  ceased  to  breathe  his 
name  everywhere. 

Remembering,  too,  that  the  Jefferson  party  was  formed 
upon  its  supposed  superior  devotion  to  the  personal  rights  of 
men,  holding  the  rights  of  property  to  be  secondary  only, 
and  greatly  inferior,  and  then  assuming  that  the  so-called 
Democracy  of  to-day  are  the  Jefferson,  and  their  opponents 
the  anti- Jefferson  parties,  it  will  be  equally  interesting  to 
note  how  completely  the  two  have  changed  hands  as  to  the 
principles  upon  which  they  were  originally  supposed  to  be 
divided. 

The  Democracy  of  to-day  hold  the  liberty  of  one  man  to 
be  absolutely  nothing  when  in  conflict  with  another  man's 
right  of  property.  Republicans,  on  the  contrary,  are  for  the 
man  and  the  dollar,  but,  in  case  of  conflict,  the  man  before 
the  dollar. 

I   remember  being1   once   much   amused   at   seeing   two 


ON  THE  VERGE  OF  A  NEW  EPOCH.  199 

partially  intoxicated  men  engage  in  a  fight  with  their  great- 
coats on,  which  fight,  after  a  long  and  rather  harmless  con- 
test, ended  in  each  having  fought  himself  out  of  his  own 
coat  and  into  that  of  the  other.  If  the  two  leading  parties  of 
this  day  are  really  identical  with  the  two  in  the  days  of  Jef- 
ferson and  Adams,  they  have  performed  the  same  feat  as  the 
two  drunken  men. 

But,  soberly,  it  is  now  no  child's  play  to  save  the  prin- 
ciples of  Jefferson  from  total  overthrow  in  this  nation. 

One  would  state  with  great  confidence  that  he  could  con- 
vince any  sane  child  that  the  simpler  propositions  of  Euclid 
are  true ;  but,  nevertheless,  he  would  fail,  utterly,  with  one 
who  should  deny  the  definitions  and  axioms.  The  principles 
of  Jefferson  are  the  definitions  and  axioms  of  free  society. 
And  yet  they  are  denied  and  evaded,  with  no  small  show  of 
success.  One  dashingly  calls  them  "  glittering  generalities ;" 
another  bluntly  calls  them  "  self-evident  lies ;"  and  others 
insidiously  argue  that  they  apply  only  to  "  superior  races." 

These  expressions,  differing  in  form,  are  identical  in 
object  and  effect, —  the  supplanting  the  principles  of  free 
government,  and  restoring  those  of  classification,  caste  and 
legitimacy.  They  would  delight  a  convocation  of  crowned 
heads  plotting  against  the  people.  They  are  the  vanguard 
—  the  miners  and  sappers  —  of  returning  despotism.  We 
must  repulse  them  or  they  will  subjugate  us. 

This  is  a  world  of  compensations,  and  he  who  would  be 
no  slave  must  consent  to  have  no  slave.  Those  who  deny 
freedom  to  others  deserve  it  not  for  themselves,  and,  under 
a  just  God,  can  not  long  retain  it. 

All  honor  to  Jefferson  —  to  the  men  who,  in  the  concrete 
pressure  of  a  struggle  for  national  independence  by  a  single 
people,  had  the  coolness,  forecast  and  capacity  to  introduce 
into  a  merely  revolutionary  document  an  abstract  truth,  ap- 
plicable to  all  men  and  all  times,  and  so  to  embalm  it  there 
that  to-day  and  in  all  coming  days  it  shall  be  a  rebuke  and 
a  stumbling-block  to  the  very  harbingers  of  reappearing 
tyranny  and  oppression.* 


*For  an  authoritative  copy  of  this  letter  (published  by  the 
Boston  press  at  the  time)  the  writer  was  indebted  to  the  late  Hon. 
Henry  L.  Pierce,  Chairman  of  the  committee  addressed — at  one 
time  Mayor  of  Boston  and  Member  of  Congress. 


200       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

A  large  number  of  German-born  citizens,  who  were 
heartily  in  accord  with  the  main  purposes  of  the  Repub- 
lican party,  found  it  hard  to  unite  with  the  "Americans," 
who  had  in  a  day  crushed  the  old  Whig  party  of  Massa- 
chusetts, and  brought  to  the  front  such  men  as  Henry 
Wilson,  N.  P.  Banks,  and  Anson  Burlingame.  Later, 
a  coalition  of  the  new  party  with  Free-Soil  Democrats 
had  made  George  S.  Boutwell  Governor,  and  Charles 
Sumner  Senator.  Early  in  1859  the  Legislature  had 
taken  action  in  favor  of  so  amending  the  Massachusetts 
Constitution  as  to  require  of  foreigners  a  residence  of 
two  years  after  being  naturalized  to  entitle  them  to 
vote.  This  procedure  was  a  source  of  exasperation  to 
German  Republicans  in  Illinois.  One  of  the  most 
prominent  of  these  living  at  Springfield, —  Dr.  Theo- 
dore Canisius,  afterward  United  States  Consul  at 
Vienna, —  in  order  to  allay  the  excitement  on  this  sub- 
ject, obtained  from  Lincoln  the  following  letter  (dated 
May  17,  1859): 

Your  note,  asking  in  behalf  of  yourself  and  other  Ger- 
man citizens  whether  I  am  for  or  against  the  constitutional 
provision  in  regard  to  naturalized  citizens  lately  adopted  by 
Massachusetts,  and  whether  I  am  for  or  against  a  fusion 
of  the  Republicans  and  other  opposition  elements  for  the 
canvass  of  i860,  is  received. 

Massachusetts  is  a  sovereign  and  independent  State,  and 
it  is  no  privilege  of  mine  to  scold  her  for  what  she  does. 
Still,  if  from  what  she  has  done  an  inference  is  sought  to 
be  drawn  as  to  what  I  would  do,  I  may  without  impropriety 
speak  out.  1  say,  then,  that  as  I  understand  the  Massachu- 
setts provision  I  am  against  its  adoption  in  Illinois,  or  in 
any  other  place  where  I  have  a  right  to  oppose  it.  Under- 
standing the  spirit  of  our  institutions  to  aim  at  the  elevation 
of  men,  I  am  opposed  to  whatever  tends  to  degrade  them. 
I  have  some  little  notoriety  for  commiserating  the  oppressed 


ON  THE  VERGE  OF  A  NEW  EPOCH.  201 

condition  of  the  negro,  and  I  should  be  strangely  inconsistent 
if  I  could  favor  any  project  for  curtailing  the  existing  rights 
of  white  men,  even  though  born  in  different  lands  and 
speaking  different  languages  from  myself. 

As  to  the  matter  of  fusion,  I  am  for  it,  if  it  can  be  had 
on  Republican  ground;  and  I  am  not  for  it  on  any  other 
terms.  A  fusion  on  any  other  terms  would  be  as  foolish 
as  unprincipled.  It  would  lose  the  whole  North,  while  the 
common  enemy  would  still  carry  the  whole  South.  The 
question  of  men  is  a  different  one.  There  are  good  patriotic 
men  and  able  statesmen  in  the  South  whom  I  would  cheer- 
fully support  if  they  would  now  place  themselves  on  Repub- 
lican ground.  But  I  am  against  letting  down  the  Repub- 
lican standard  a  hair's  breadth. 

I  have  written  this  hastily,  but  I  believe  it  answers  your 
questions  substantially. 

There  was  in  this  response  nothing  of  the  shyness  of 
a  conscious  and  cautious  candidate,  yet  we  may  doubt 
the  strict  accuracy  of  the  Doctor's  opinion,  that  it  was 
written  at  a  time  when  Lincoln  "  had  not  the  most 
distant  idea  of  being  nominated  for  the  Presidency." 

In  a  private  letter  to  Hon.  Schuyler  Colfax*  (whom 
he  had  then  never  met),  he  urged  careful  efforts  "  to 
hedge  against  divisions  in  the  Republican  ranks  gener- 
ally, and  particularly  for  the  contest  of  i860."  In  this 
communication,  making  no  allusion  to  Presidential  can- 
didates, or  to  the  temporary  inclination  of  Mr.  Colfax 
early  in  the  previous  year  to  favor  the  re-election  of 
Douglas  to  the  Senate,  Lincoln  wrote: 

The  point  of  danger  is  the  temptation  in  different  local- 
ities to  "  platform  "  for  something  which  will  be  popular  just 
there,  but  which,  nevertheless,  will  be  a  firebrand  elsewhere, 
and  especially  in  a  national  convention.     As  instances,  the 


*July  6,  1859.    The  letter  is  given  entire  in  "  Complete  Works/ 
(N.  &  H.),  L,  535- 


202        LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

movement  against  foreigners  in  Massachusetts ;  in  New 
Hampshire,  to  make  obedience  to  the  fugitive  slave  law 
punishable  as  a  crime ;  in  Ohio,  to  repeal  the  fugitive  slave 
law ;  and  squatter  sovereignty  in  Kansas.  In  these  things 
there  is  explosive  matter  enough  to  blow  up  half  a  dozen 
national  conventions,  if  it  gets  into  them,  and  what  gets  very 
rife  outside  of  conventions  is  very  likely  to  find  its  way  into 
them. 

Among  the  letters  he  received  during  the  summer, 
expressing  a  desire  that  he  should  be  a  candidate  for 
the  Presidential  nomination,  was  one  from  a  conserva- 
tive Republican  of  Ohio, —  Hon.  Samuel  Galloway,  pre- 
viously a  Whig  member  of  Congress, —  who  was  averse 
to  the  candidacy  of  Governor  Chase.  This  letter  was 
written  soon  after  the  meeting  of  the  Ohio  Republican 
State  Convention,  which  had  refused  to  renominate 
Judge  Joseph  Swan,  of  the  Supreme  Court,  a  man  of 
high  standing  as  a  jurist,  and  personally  much  esteemed, 
whose  defeat  in  convention  was  attributed  to  a  recent 
decision  of  the  court,  of  which  he  prepared  the  opinion, 
in  one  of  the  noted  cases  arising  under  the  fugitive  slave 
law  of  1850. 

An  alleged  fugitive  slave,  captured  not  far  from 
Oberlin,  in  a  community  strongly  anti-slavery,  had  been 
promptly  rescued  from  the  arresting  officer.  A  number 
of  prominent  citizens  were  prosecuted  for  taking  part  in 
the  rescue  and  put  in  jail;  whereupon  they  applied  to 
the  Supreme  Court  of  the  State  for  relief  under  a  writ 
of  habeas  corpus.  There  was  great  excitement  in  North- 
ern Ohio,  and  at  an  indignation  mass  meeting  in  Cleve- 
land, Governor  Chase  himself  was  one  of  the  speakers. 
Some  of  the  most  respected  citizens  of  the  State,  he 
said,  had  done  what  they  believed  to  be  right,  and  what 


ON  THE  VERGE  OF  A  NEW  EPOCH.  203 

not  one  man  in  a  thousand  could  look  up  into  the  blue 
sky  with  his  right  hand  on  his  heart  and  say  was  not 
right.  "  If  a  process  for  the  release  of  any  prisoner 
should  issue  from  the  courts  of  the  State,"  (so  he  was 
reported,)  "  he  was  free  to  say  that,  so  long  as  Ohio  was 
a  sovereign  State,*  that  process  should  be  executed.'' 
Not  long  after  this  meeting  the  court  gave  its  decision, 
refusing  to  interfere  and  remanding  the  prisoners.  The 
circumstances  thus  briefly  given  will  explain  the  first 
part  of  Lincoln's  reply  to  his  before-named  corre- 
spondent, dated  July  28,  1859:  f 

Two  things  done  by  the  Ohio  Republican  Convention, 
namely,  the  repudiation  of  Judge  Swan  and  the  "  plank  " 
for  the  repeal  of  the  fugitive  slave  law,  I  very  much  re- 
gretted. These  two  things  are  of  a  piece,  and  they  are 
viewed  by  many  good  men,  sincerely  opposed  to  slavery, 
as  a  struggle  against  and  in  disregard  of  the  Constitution 
itself ;  and  it  is  the  very  thing  that  will  greatly  endanger  our 
cause  if  it  be  not  kept  out  of  our  National  Convention. 

There  is  another  thing  our  friends  are  doing  which  gives 
me  some  uneasiness.  It  is  their  leaning  toward  "  popular 
sovereignty."  There  are  three  substantial  objections  to  this: 
First,  no  party  can  command  respect  which  sustains  this  year 
what  it  opposed  last.  Secondly,  Douglas  (who  is  the  most 
dangerous  enemy  of  liberty,  because  the  most  insidious  one) 
would  have  but  little  support  in  the  North,  and,  by  conse- 
quence, no  capital  to  trade  on  in  the  South,  if  it  were  not 
for  our  friends  thus  magnifying  him  and  his  humbug.  But 
lastly,  and  chiefly,  Douglas's  popular  sovereignty,  accepted 
by  the  public  mind  as  a  great  principle,  nationalizes  slavery 
and   revives   the   African   slave   trade   inevitably.     Taking 


*Note  how  readily  the  phrase  "  sovereign  State  "  drops  from 
the  pen  of  Chase,  and  of  Lincoln  also  (in  the  Canisius  letter  just 
given) — later  more  current  at  the  South  than  at  the  North. 

fFirst  given  to  the  press  after  Governor  Chase  became  Chief 
Justice. 


204        LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

slaves  into  new  Territories  and  buying  slaves  in  Africa  are 
identical  things  —  identical  rights  or  identical  wrongs  — 
and  the  argument  which  establishes  one  will  establish  the 
other.  Try  a  thousand  years  for  a  sound  reason  why  Con- 
gress shall  not  hinder  the  people  of  Kansas  from  having 
slaves,  and  when  you  have  found  it,  it  will  be  an  equally 
good  one  why  Congress  should  not  hinder  the  people  of 
Georgia  from  importing  slaves  from  Africa. 

As  for  Governor  Chase,  I  have  a  kind  side  for  him.  He 
was  one  of  the  few  distinguished  men  of  the  nation  who 
gave  us  their  sympathy  last  year.  I  never  saw  him  —  sup- 
pose him  to  be  able  and  right-minded,  but  still  he  may  not 
be  the  most  suitable  as  a  candidate  for  the  Presidency. 

I  must  say,  I  do  not  think  myself  fit  for  the  Presidency. 
As  you  propose  a  correspondence  with  me,  I  shall  look  for 
your  letters  anxiously. 

There  was  a  lively  canvass  this  year  in  Ohio,  where 
Mr.  Chase,  near  the  close  of  his  second  term  as  Gov- 
ernor, was  the  general  choice  of  the  Republicans  to  suc- 
ceed Senator  George  E.  Pugh,  of  whom  he  had  been 
the  immediate  predecessor.  The  Governor  had  been 
re-elected  two  years  before  by  a  plurality  of  little  more 
than  one  thousand.  Ohio  was  clearly  debatable  ground, 
and  there  was  an  anxious  state  of  mind  on  both  sides. 
Among  the  orators  called  in  from  abroad  were  the 
two  Illinois  champions,  whose  contest  had  become  of 
national  interest  the  previous  year.  Douglas  spoke  at 
Columbus  and  Cincinnati,  and  was  followed  in  each 
place,  after  a  brief  interval,  by  Lincoln.  The  main  sub- 
ject of  the  latter's  Columbus  speech  (on  the  16th  of  Sep- 
tember) was  a  magazine  article  by  Douglas,  expounding 
his  "  popular  sovereignty  "  doctrine  —  supposed  to  be 
"  the  most  maturely  considered  of  his  long  series  of 
explanations." 

On  the  17th  Lincoln  addressed  a  very  large  audience 


ON  THE  VERGE  OF  A  NEW  EPOCH.  205 

in  Cincinnati,  on  the  same  general  topics,  but  without 
self-repetition.  There  were  also  incidental  passages  of 
his  speech  of  special  interest  and  detachable  from  its 
main  course.  For  example,  recalling  the  remark  of 
Douglas  on  a  former  occasion  about  "  shooting  over 
the  line,"  while  disclaiming  any  purpose  to  interfere 
with  slavery  in  the  States,  he  said: 

It  has  occurred  to  me  here  to-night  that  if  ever  I  do 
shoot  at  the  people  on  the  other  side  of  the  line  in  a  slave 
vState,  and  purpose  to  do  so,  keeping  my  skin  safe,  I  have 
now  about  the  best  chance  I  shall  ever  have.  I  should  not 
wonder  if  there  are  some  Kentuckians  about  this  audience; 
we  are  close  to  Kentucky,  and  whether  that  be  so  or  not, 
we  are  on  elevated  ground,  and  by  speaking  distinctly,  I 
should  not  wonder  if  some  of  the  Kentuckians  should  hear 
me  on  the  other  side  of  the  river.  For  that  reason,  I  propose 
to  address  a  portion  of  what  I  have  to  say  to  the  Ken- 
tuckians. 

I  say,  then,  in  the  first  place,  to  the  Kentuckians,  that 
I  am  what  they  call,  as  I  understand  it,  a  "  Black  Repub- 
lican." I  think  that  slavery  is  wrong,  morally,  socially  and 
politically.  I  desire  that  it  should  be  no  farther  spread  in 
these  United  States,  and  I  should  not  object  if  it  should 
gradually  terminate  in  the  whole  Union.  While  I  say  this 
for  myself,  I  say  to  you,  Kentuckians,  that  I  understand 
that  you  differ  radically  with  me  upon  this  proposition ;  that 
you  believe  slavery  is  a  good  thing;  that  slavery  is  right; 
that  it  ought  to  be  extended  and  perpetuated  in  this  Union. 
Now,  there  being  this  broad  difference  between  us,  I  do 
not  pretend  in  addressing  myself  to  you,  Kentuckians,  to 
attempt  proselyting  you  at  all ;  that  would  be  a  vain  effort. 
I  do  not  enter  upon  it.  I  only  propose  to  try  to  show  you 
that  you  ought  to  nominate  for  the  next  Presidency,  at 
Charleston,  my  distinguished  friend,  Judge  Douglas.  In 
whatever  there  is  a  difference  between  you  and  him,  I  under- 
stand he  is  sincerely  for  you,  and  more  wisely  for  you  than 
you  are  for  yourselves.    .    .    . 

I  lay  down  the  proposition  that  Judge  Douglas  is  not 
only  the  man  that  promises  you  in  advance  a  hold  upon  the 


206        LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

North,  and  support  in  the  North,  but  that  in  every  possible 
way  he  can  he  constantly  moulds  the  public  opinion  of  the 
North  to  your  ends ;  and  if  there  are  a  few  things  in  which 
he  seems  to  be  against  you  —  a  few  things  which  he  says 
that  appear  to  be  against  you,  and  a  few  that  he  forbears  to 
say  which  you  would  like  to  hear  him  say  —  you  ought  to 
remember  that  the  saying  of  the  one,  or  the  forbearing  to 
say  the  other,  would  lose  his  hold  upon  the  North,  and,  by 
consequence,  would  lose  his  capacity  to  serve  you. 

Of  the  results  of  an  anticipated  success  of  the  Repub- 
lican party  in  the  next  national  canvass  he  said: 

I  will  tell  you,  so  far  as  I  am  authorized  to  speak  for  the 
Opposition,  what  we  mean  to  do  with  you.  We  mean  to  treat 
you  as  nearly  as  we  possibly  can  as  Washington,  Jefferson 
and  Madison  treated  you.  We  mean  to  leave  you  alone,  and 
in  no  way  to  interfere  with  your  institutions ;  to  abide  by  all 
and  every  compromise  of  the  Constitution,  and,  in  a  word, 
coming  back  to  the  original  proposition,  to  treat  you,  so 
far  as  degenerated  men  (if  we  have  degenerated)  may,  ac- 
cording to  the  example  of  those  noble  fathers — Washington, 
Jefferson  and  Madison. 

He  had  the  satisfaction  of  hearing  from  Ohio,  in 
October,  that  the  Republicans  had  elected  William 
Dennison  Governor,  and  a  majority  of  the  Legisla- 
ture, which  insured  the  choice  of  Governor  Chase  as 
successor  of  Mr.  Pugh  in  the  United  States  Senate. 

A  few  days  later  came  the  ominous  news  of  John 
Brown's  raid.  In  subsequent  speeches  of  this  year, 
Lincoln  spoke  in  plain  terms  of  abhorrence  of  the 
attempt  to  incite  a  slave  insurrection.  John  Brown 
was  promptly  tried  and  convicted  at  Charlestown;  was 
sentenced  on  the  ist  of  November;  on  the  2d  of 
December  was  hanged.  Lincoln,  in  his  simplicity  of 
character,  could  not  adore  as  a  saint   one  whom   he 


#x;  tfc    tew   c^_  aJT    *-  ^  ^  ^  ^^ 


ON  THE  VERGE  OF  A  NEW  EPOCH.  207 

pitied  as  a  criminal.  Such  a  canonization  was  possibly 
beyond  his  comprehension.  On  the  other  hand,  Gov- 
ernor Chase  solved  the  enigma,  in  so  far  as  soluble, 
when  he  privately  wrote*  (October  29,  1859): 

Poor  old  man !  How  sadly  misled  by  his  own  imagina- 
tion! How  rash,  how  mad,  how  criminal,  thus  to  stir  up 
insurrection,  which,  if  successful,  would  deluge  the  land  with 
blood  and  make  void  the  fairest  hopes  of  mankind!  And 
yet  how  hard  to  condemn  him,  when  we  remember  the  prov- 
ocation, the  unselfish  desire  to  set  free  the  oppressed,  the 
bravery,  the  humanity  towards  his  prisoners,  which  defeated 
his  purposes!  This  is  a  tragedy  which  will  supply  themes 
for  novelists  and  poets  for  centuries.  Men  will  condemn  his 
act  and  pity  his  fate  forever.  But  while  pity  and  condemna- 
tion mingle  for  him,  how  stern  will  be  the  reprobation  which 
must  fall  upon  the  guiltiness  of  forcing  slavery  upon  Kansas, 
which  began  it  all,  and  upon  slavery  itself,  which  underlies 
it  all! 

Lincoln  found  time  to  prepare  an  address,  which 
he  delivered  at  the  Wisconsin  State  Agricultural  Fair, 
in  Milwaukee,  on  the  last  day  of  September.  He  rec- 
ommended to  farmers  the  policy  of  "  thorough  culti- 
vation" ;  discussed  the  relations  of  capital  and  labor; 
offered  practical  suggestions  in  regard  to  the  steam 
plow,  then  occupying  attention;  and  introduced  other 
topics  of  special  interest  to  his  auditors,  interspersing 
shrewd  hints  or  maxims  in  his  own  way.  His  closing 
words,  addressed  to  those  who  were  contesting  for  pre- 
miums, are  particularly  noteworthy  for  their  flavor  of 
reminiscence  and  personal  experience:  "  Some  of  you 
will  be  successful,  and  such  will  need  but  little  philos- 
ophy to  take  them  home  in  cheerful  spirits;  others  will 
be  disappointed,  and  will  be  in  a  less  happy  mood.     To 


*In  a  letter  (hitherto  unpublished)  to  the  present  writer.      See 
fac-simile. 


208        LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

such  let  it  be  said,  '  Lay  it  not  too  much  to  heart.'  Let 
them  adopt  the  maxim,  '  Better  luck  next  time,'  and 
then  by  renewed  exertion  make  that  better  luck  for 
themselves.  And  by  the  successful  and  unsuccessful  let 
it  be  remembered  that,  while  occasions  like  the  present 
bring  their  sober  and  durable  benefits,  the  exultations 
and  mortifications  of  them  are  but  temporary;  that 
the  victor  will  soon  be  vanquished  if  he  relax  in  his 
exertions,  and  that  the  vanquished  this  year  may  be 
victor  next,  in  spite  of  all  competition." 

In  his  law  office  at  home,  a  year  from  the  day  on 
which  the  case  between  Douglas  and  himself  was  de- 
cided at  the  polls,  Lincoln  wrote  the  following  letter 
(never  before  printed),  which  has  specially  interested 
lawyers  who  have  read  it: 

Springfield,  November  2,  1859. 
Wm.  Dungy,  Esq.: 

Dear  Sir: — Yours  of  October  27  is  received.  When  a 
mortgage  is  given  to  secure  two  notes,  and  one  of  the  notes 
is  sold  and  assigned,  if  the  mortgaged  premises  are  only 
sufficient  to  pay  one  note,  the  one  assigned  will  take  it  all. 
Also,  an  execution,  from  a  judgment  on  the  assigned  note, 
may  take  it  all ;  it  being  the  same  thing  in  substance. 
There  is  redemption  on  execution  sales  from  the  United 
States  Court  just  as  from  any  other  Court. 

You  did  not  mention  the  name  of  the  plaintiff  or  de- 
fendant in  the  suit,  and  so  I  can  tell  nothing  about  it  as  to 
sales,  bids,  etc.     Write  again.  Yours,  etc., 

A.  Lincoln. 

In  December  he  received  a  letter  from  the  Repub- 
lican Executive  Committee  of  Ohio,  inclosing  another 
signed  by  Mr.  Dennison  and  many  other  prominent 
Republicans,  returning  thanks  for  his  aid  in  the  late 
canvass,  and  asking  for  publication  authentic  copies  of 


ON  THE  VERGE  OF  A  NEW  EPOCH.  209 

the  speeches  on  both  sides  in  his  debate  with  Senator 
Douglas,  as  well  as  of  the  two  speeches  lately  delivered 
by  himself  in  Ohio.  He  complied  with  this  request, 
and  the  volume  containing  these  speeches,  speedily 
published  at  Columbus,  had  a  wide  circulation  and 
influence. 

The  popular  branch  of  the  new  Congress  bore  evi- 
dence of  the  shocks  that  had  rent  asunder  the  old  par- 
ties in  collisions  of  North  and  South  —  of  Union  and 
Disunion.  On  the  5th  of  December  began  a  memo- 
rable struggle  for  the  choice  of  a  Speaker  of  the  House 
of  Representatives.  The  Republicans  at  the  start  divided 
their  votes,  giving  John  Sherman,  of  Ohio,  sixty-six, 
and  Galusha  A.  Grow,  of  Pennsylvania,  forty-three  — 
thereafter  concentrating  for  weeks  upon  Mr.  Sherman. 
There  were  eighty-six  votes  for  Mr.  Bocock,  of  Vir- 
ginia, and  thirty-five  were  variously  distributed  between 
American,  Anti-Lecompton  and  other  members.  With 
no  business  in  order  save  the  choice  of  a  Speaker,  under 
the  chairmanship  of  the  Clerk,  a  debate  and  wrangle 
sprang  up  over  a  certain  "  Helper  book,"  the  produc- 
tion of  an  anti-slavery  North  Carolinian,  and  extended 
into  the  kindred  inflammatory  topics  of  the  time.  For 
nearly  two  months  the  angry  strife  went  on,  personal 
violence,  if  not  general  bloodshed,  being  repeatedly 
endangered  —  civil  war  seeming  on  the  point  of  begin- 
ning on  the  floor  of  the  House.  During  these  days  the 
galleries  were  thronged;  spectators  shared  the  feelings 
of  the  combatants  below;  the  country  looked  on  with 
anxious  emotion  or  belligerent  sympathy;  and  no  one 
could  predict  the  end.  During  this  battle  of  words  a 
14 


210       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

little  dialogue  occurred  one  day  between  John  Hick- 
man (Anti-Lecompton  Democrat),  of  Pennsylvania,  and 
Lucius  J.  Qartrell,  a  Georgia  Secessionist,  so  typical  of 
the  spirit  of  the  hour  as  to  deserve  historic  record,  and 
so  significant  as  never  to  be  forgotten  by  those  who 
personally  witnessed  the  effect  of  Hickman's  prophetic 
retort.  If  dissolution  of  the  Union  meant  only  the 
establishment  of  a  "  dividing  line  of  sentiment,"  Mr. 
Hickman  said  it  had  already  come.     He  continued: 

But  if  dissolution  means  that  there  is  to  be  a  division 
of  territory,  I  say  no ;  that  will  never  be.  I  express  my 
opinion  —  and  that  opinion  may  go  before  the  country, 
whether  false  or  true  —  when  I  say  no;  the  North  will 
never  tolerate  a  division  of  the  territory.  (Applause  from 
the  Republican  benches.) 

Mr.  Gartrell:  I  should  like  to  know  how  you  are  to  pre- 
vent it. 

Mr.  Hickman:  I  will  tell  you  how  it  will  be  prevented. 
I  am  neither  a  prophet  nor  the  son  of  a  prophet ;  but  I  ex- 
press my  belief  that  there  is  as  much  true  courage  in  the 
North,  though  it  may  not  be  known  by  the  name  of  chivalry 
[sensation],  as  there  is  in  the  South.  I  do  not  use  the  word 
contemptuously,  for  I  admire  chivalry  everywhere.  There 
is  as  much  true  courage  at  the  North  as  there  is  at  the  South. 
I  always  believed  it ;  therefore  I  will  express  it ;  and  I  be- 
lieve, sir,  that  with  all  the  appliances  of  art  to  assist,  eighteen 
millions  of  men  reared  in  industry,  with  habits  of  the  right 
kind,  will  always  be  able  to  cope  successfully,  if  it  need  be, 
with  eight  millions  of  men  without  these  auxiliaries.  [Great 
sensation,  some  applause  from  the  Republican  benches  and 
the  galleries,  and  hisses  in  parts  of  the  hall.]  * 

The  bracketed  words  of  the  report  give  no  adequate 
representation  of  the  scene  as  permanently  pictured  on 
the  mind  of  at  least  one  listener,  to  whom  Mr.  Hick- 


*Globe  report  for  December  12,  1859. 


ON  THE  VERGE  OF  A  NEW  EPOCH.  211 

man's  manner,  if  not  his  words,  said:  "The  result  will 
not  be  doubtful." 

The  turmoil  over  the  Speakership  ended  in  the  elec- 
tion (by  Republican  and  American  votes)  of  ex-Gov- 
ernor William  Pennington,  of  New  Jersey,  on  the  first 
day  of  February  (i860).  John  W.  Forney,  an  Anti- 
Lecompton  Democrat,  Clerk  of  the  previous  House, 
was  re-elected  as  the  Opposition  candidate. 

It  was  in  December,  while  this  strife  was  at  its 
height  in  Washington,  that  Lincoln  proceeded  to  fill 
an  engagement,  made  some  weeks  before,  to  address 
the  people  of  Kansas,  in  Leavenworth,  Atchison,  Doni- 
phan, and  other  towns.  He  received  a  very  cordial  wel- 
come as  one  of  their  foremost  champions.  His  remarks, 
in  the  main,  were  like  in  tenor  to  his  speeches  elsewhere 
this  year.  At  Leavenworth,  "  shooting  over  the  line  " 
into  Missouri,  he  was  reported  as  using  some  words 
hardly  compatible  with  his  habitual  tone  of  modera- 
tion, though  not  inconsistent  in  principle  with  his  fixed 
views  —  of  which  this  is  a  notable  example : 

But  you  Democrats  are  for  the  Union ;  and  you  greatly 
fear  the  success  of  the  Republicans  would  destroy  the  Union. 
Why?  Do  the  Republicans  declare  against  the  Union? 
Nothing  like  it.  Your  own  statement  of  it  is  that  if  the 
Black  Republicans  elect  a  President,  you  "  won't  stand  it." 
You  will  break  up  the  Union.  If  we  shall  constitutionally 
elect  a  President,  it  will  be  our  duty  to  see  that  you  submit. 
Old  John  Brown  has  been  executed  for  treason  against  a 
State.  We  can  not  object,  even  though  he  agreed  with  us 
in  thinking  slavery  wrong.  That  can  not  excuse  violence, 
bloodshed  and  treason.  It  could  avail  him  nothing  that  he 
might  think  himself  right.  So,  if  we  constitutionally  elect  a 
President,  and  therefore  you  undertake  to  destroy  the  Union, 
it  will  be  our  duty  to  deal  with  you  as  old  John  Brown  has 
been  dealt  with.     We  shall  try  to  do  our  duty.     We  hope 


212        LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

and  believe  that  in  no  section  will  a  majority  so  act  as  to 
render  such  extreme  measures  necessary.* 

In  the  Democratic  Senate  there  were  signs  as  por- 
tentous as  in  the  Opposition  House,  though  less  mani- 
fest in  their  purport. 

Mr.  Davis,  of  Mississippi,  (February  2,  i860,)  offered 
a  series  of  political  resolutions,  after  the  manner  of  Cal- 
houn, the  vital  points  of  which  were  (first)  the  denial  of 
any  power  in  Congress  or  a  Territorial  Legislature  "  to 
annul  or  impair  the  constitutional  right  of  any  citizen 
of  the  United  States  to  take  his  slave  property  into  the 
common  Territories;"  and  (second)  the  affirmation  that 
"  it  is  the  duty  of  the  Federal  Government  there  to 
afford  for  that,  as  for  other  species  of  property,  the 
needful  protection;  and  if  experience  should  at  any  time 
prove  that  the  judiciary  does  not  possess  power  to 
insure  adequate  protection,  it  will  then  become  the 
duty  of  Congress  to  supply  such  deficiency."  The  res- 
olutions did  not  omit,  of  course,  the  usual  denunciation 
of  the  doctrines  of  the  Republican  party.  In  a  body  so 
strongly  Democratic  as  the  Senate  was  at  this  time,  such 
expression  was  easily  obtainable  without  prolonged  dis- 
cussion. But  the  main  purpose  of  Mr.  Davis  was  disci- 
pline within  the  Democratic  party.  His  objective  point 
was  Douglas. 

In  October,  Lincoln  had  been  invited  to  deliver  a 
lecture  in  Rev.  Henry  Ward  Beecher's  church,  in 
Brooklyn,  and  consented,  with  the  condition  that  he 
should  speak  on  a  political  theme.  It  was  quite  satis- 
factory to  him  that  the  lecture  committee  ultimately 


*Not  in  "  Complete  Works  "  (N.  &  H.),  but  published  by  the 
press  at  the  time. 


ON  THE  VERGE  OF  A  NEW  EPOCH.  213 

chose  the  Cooper  Institute  Hall  as  the  place  for  his 
appearance.  On  the  evening  of  the  27th  of  February 
the  appointed  hour  found  him  in  the  presence  of  an 
audience  notable  in  character  and  numbers.  William 
Cullen  Bryant  presided,  and  many  distinguished  men 
sat  on  the  platform. 

The  subject  of  Lincoln's  address  was  thus  stated: 
"  In  his  speech  last  autumn,  at  Columbus,  Ohio,  as 
reported  in  the  New  York  Times,  Senator  Douglas 
said:  '  Our  fathers,  when  they  framed  the  government 
under  which  we  live,  understood  this  question  just  as 
well,  and  even  better,  than  we  do  now.'  I  fully  indorse 
this,  and  I  adopt  it  as  a  text  for  this  discourse.  I  so 
adopt  it,  because  it  furnishes  a  precise  and  agreed  start- 
ing point  for  a  discussion  between  Republicans  and  that 
wing  of  the  Democracy  headed  by  Senator  Douglas.  It 
simply  leaves  the  inquiry:  What  was  the  understanding 
those  fathers  had  of  the  question  mentioned?" 

He  proceeded  to  show  from  the  historic  record  how 
the  thirty-nine  signers  of  the  Constitution,  framed  in 
1787,  individually,  so  far  as  ascertainable  from  their 
subsequent  acts,  regarded  the  question  at  issue,  namely, 
"  Does  the  proper  division  of  local  from  Federal  author- 
ity, or  anything  in  the  Constitution,  forbid  our  Federal 
Government  to  control  as  to  slavery  in  our  Federal  Ter- 
ritories?" Twenty-one  of  the  thirty-nine,  as  he  points 
out  in  detail,  sustained  by  their  recorded  acts  the  posi- 
tion taken  by  the  Republican  party  in  regard  to  the 
exclusion  of  slavery  from  the  Territories,  and  only  two 
voted  against  such  exclusion  by  Congress.  He  then 
considers  the  position  of  the  seventy-six  members  of 
Congress  who   framed   the   twelve   amendments   soon 


214        LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

after  adopted.  This  was  the  First  Congress,  which 
also  framed  the  ordinance  excluding  slavery  from  the 
Northwestern  Territory.  No  possible  escape  is  left 
from  the  conclusion  that  the  Republicans,  and  not 
their  opponents,  were  true  to  the  doctrine  of  the 
fathers  as  to  the  power  of  Congress  on  this  subject. 
The  remainder  of  the  speech  is  a  calm  appeal  to  "  the 
Southern  people,"  setting  forth  the  aims  and  purposes 
of  the  Republicans  should  they  come  into  power.  This 
famous  speech  may  be  fitly  regarded  either  as  the  finale 
of  a  closing  period  of  his  life,  or  as  the  prelude  to  that 
on  which  he  was  unconsciously  entering.  Its  publica- 
tion in  the  New  York  papers  and  general  circulation  at 
the  East  had  an  influence  on  coming  events. 

From  New  York  he  was  asked  to  extend  his  tour 
still  eastward,  taking  part  in  the  political  canvass  in 
New  Hampshire,  where  a  State  election  was  to  occur 
in  March,  and  in  Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island,  whose 
elections  were  in  April.  With  this  request  he  complied, 
after  tarrying  a  few  days  in  New  York  and  Brook- 
lyn, receiving  attentions  from  friends  and  forming  new 
acquaintances. 

In  New  England  he  spoke  at  Hartford  on  the  5th 
of  March,  and  next  day  at  New  Haven;  later  at  Meri- 
den,  Norwich  and  Bridgeport,  and  at  one  or  two  places 
in  Rhode  Island.  He  then  went  into  New  Hampshire, 
where  he  delivered  speeches  at  Concord  and  Manches- 
ter, and  visited  his  son  Robert,  a  student  at  Phillips 
Academy  in  Exeter,  preparing  for  admission  to  Har- 
vard University,  which  he  entered  the  ensuing  sum- 
mer. Everywhere  agreeable  demonstrations  and  hearty 
applause  greeted  Lincoln's  public  appearance.  He  was 
already  personally  known  in  New  England,  and  now  he 


ON  THE  VERGE  OF  A  NEW  EPOCH.  215 

socially  met,  for  the  first  time,  many  who  were  impressed 
by  his  intellectual  powers,  and  whose  hearts  he  gained. 
He  returned  home  from  this  tour  on  the  14th  of 
March,  and  was  soon  after  busy  with  an  important 
suit  at  Chicago,  the  last  in  which  he  was  to  be  actively 
engaged  as  counsel.  This  was  a  case  which  may  be 
classed  among  the  celebrated,  involving  the  title  to 
certain  valuable  real  estate  —  land  which  the  waves  of 
Lake  Michigan  had  gradually  extended  in  one  quarter 
by  removal  of  soil  from  another,  without  the  interven- 
tion of  the  one  party  or  the  consent  of  the  other.  The 
suit,  that  of  Jones  against  Johnson,  was  tried  before 
Judge  Drummond,  of  the  United  States  District  Court. 
The  plaintiff,  who  retained  Lincoln  in  addition  to  other 
counsel,  after  once  losing  the  case,  now  had  the  satis- 
faction of  obtaining  a  decision  in  his  favor. 

Lincoln  was  at  home  with  his  family  three  days 
before  the  meeting  of  the  Republican  National  Con- 
vention at  Chicago,  where  its  delegates  were  already 
gathering.  It  was  a  quiet  Sunday,  the  like  of  which, 
to  him,  would  never  return.  Said  Mrs.  Lincoln  a  week 
or  two  later,  speaking  of  this  occasion:  "  We  had  before 
us  a  New  York  illustrated  weekly,  in  which  a  number  of 
Presidential  candidates  were  represented  in  a  double- 
page  group,  Mr.  Seward's  portrait  being  conspicuous 
over  all,  as  that  of  the  coming  man.  Mr.  Lincoln's  pic- 
ture was  there,  such  as  it  was,  and  couldn't  well  have 
been  made  more  dismal.  Half  seriously  I  said  to  him: 
'A  look  at  that  face  is  enough  to  put  an  end  to  hope.'  " 

But  a  bad  wood-cut  mattered  little  now,  and  the 
suspense  would  soon  be  over. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

i860. 

The  Chicago  Convention  —  Lincoln  Nominated  for  the 
Presidency. 

Before  i860  no  national  convention  of  any  party  had 
been  held  in  Chicago.  That  place  the  Republican  com- 
mittee had  now  selected,  not  accidentally,  though  with- 
out contest  over  what  was  treated  as  of  little  concern. 
Citizens  of  Chicago  erected  a  temporary  building,  called 
the  Wigwam,  to  accommodate  the  Convention  and  many 
thousand  spectators.  Hospitable  and  judicious  atten- 
tion was  given  to  the  city's  guests.  The  two  Repub- 
lican morning  newspaper  offices  had  among  their  deco- 
rations the  banner,  "For  President,  Abraham  Lincoln"  ; 
and  the  flag  of  the  one  Republican  evening  paper,  edited 
by  a  personal  friend  of  the  New  York  candidate,  bore 
the  legend:  "For  President,  William  H.  Seward;  for 
Vice-President,  Abraham  Lincoln."  Illinois,  less  than 
a  week  before  the  Convention  met,  had  chosen  dele- 
gates united  and  active  in  support  of  Lincoln.  New 
York  asked  and  expected  the  nomination  of  Seward. 
On  Wednesday  morning  (May  16th)  Governor  Morgan 
called  the  Convention  to  order,  and  David  Wilmot,  of 
Pennsylvania,  was  made  temporary  chairman.  The  per- 
manent presiding  officer  was  George  Ashmun,  of  Mas- 
sachusetts. The  platform,  reported  and  adopted  the 
next  day,  affirmed  "  the  maintenance  of  the  principles 

(216) 


NOMINATED  FOR  PRESIDENT.         217 

promulgated  in  the  Declaration  of  Independence  and 
embodied  in  the  Federal  Constitution  "  to  be  "  essen- 
tial to  the  preservation  of  our  Republican  institu- 
tions." *  It  declared  that  "  the  Federal  Constitution, 
the  rights  of  the  States  and  the  Union  of  the  States 
must  and  shall  be  preserved  "  —  with  other  less  solid 
generalities.  The  chief  distinctive  principles  of  the 
party  were  set  forth  in  these  terms: 

"  That  the  new  dogma,  that  the  Constitution  of  its 
own  force  carries  slavery  into  any  or  all  of  the  Terri- 
tories of  the  United  States,  is  a  dangerous  political 
heresy.    .    .    . 

"  That  the  normal  condition  of  all  the  territory  of 
the  United  States  is  that  of  freedom;  .  .  .  and  we 
deny  the  authority  of  Congress,  of  a  Territorial  Legis- 
lature, or  of  any  individuals,  to  give  legal  existence  to 
slavery  in  any  Territory  of  the  United  States." 

There  were  also  expressions  in  favor  of  (practically) 
incidental  protection;  of  river  and  harbor  improvements, 
and  of  "  immediate  and  efficient  aid  from  the  Govern- 
ment for  the  construction  of  a  railroad  to  the  Pacific." 

Bright  skies,  a  warm  sun,  gentle  breezes  from  the 
lake,  saluted  members  of  the  Convention  as  they  moved 
toward  the  Wigwam  on  Friday  morning.  There  was 
music  by  the  band  which  had  come  from  New  York; 
and  from  the  same  city  there  were  throngs  of  men  of 


*  The  quoted  words  were  in  the  resolution  as  it  came  from 
the  committee.  Some  writers  have  given  undue  prominence  to  a 
little  episode  in  which  Mr.  Giddings  and  Mr.  G.  W.  Curtis  took 
part.  The  only  change  they  effected  in  the  platform  was  the 
special  indorsement  of  a  passage  of  the  Declaration,  by  insertion 
in  a  resolution  which  already  indorsed  the  whole. 


2i8       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

hardy  visage  and  healthy  lungs  ready  to  swell  the 
Seward  chorus  within  the  walls  of  the  Wigwam.  Nor 
was  there  lacking  a  multitude  of  stalwart  men  with  fog- 
horn voices  who  came  from  places  less  remote  to  do 
their  part  for  Abraham  Lincoln.  When  the  names  of 
candidates  were  formally  presented,  all  were  vocally 
honored  —  only  two,  however,  beyond  the  usual  cour- 
tesy. At  the  name  of  Seward,  to  which  the  fine  orator- 
ical periods  of  Mr.  Evarts  led  up,  there  was  a  Niagara  of 
cheering  that  seemed  irrepressible.  The  noise  was  sur- 
passed by  the  lake-storm  evoked  when  Mr.  Judd  pro- 
nounced the  name  of  Lincoln.  Both  demonstrations 
had  been  well  prepared  —  Illinois  having  the  advantage 
in  opportunity;  and  had  both  come  together,  it  might 
well  have  been  doubted  how  long  the  house  could  stand. 

Other  candidates  proposed  were  Judge  Edward 
Bates,  of  Missouri;  ex-Governor  Salmon  P.  Chase,  of 
Ohio, —  which  State,  out  of  its  abundance,  also  had 
Justice  John  McLean  and  Senator  B.  F.  Wade,  for 
both  of  whom  votes  were  cast, —  and  Senator  Simon 
Cameron,  of  Pennsylvania.  New  Jersey  at  first  voted 
for  William  L.  Dayton,  and  Vermont  for  Senator  Jacob 
Collamer. 

The  first  ballot  resulted  in  173  votes  for  Mr.  Seward, 
102  for  Mr.  Lincoln,  50  for  Mr.  Cameron,  49  for  Mr. 
Chase,  48  for  Mr.  Bates,  14  for  Mr.  Dayton,  12  for  Mr. 
McLean,  10  for  Mr.  Collamer,  3  for  Mr.  Wade,  and  1 
each  for  John  C.  Fremont,  Charles  Sumner,  and  John 
M.  Reed.  The  second  ballot,  which  immediately  fol- 
lowed, gave  Seward  184,  Lincoln  181,  Chase  42,  Bates 
35,  Dayton  10,  McLean  8,  Cassius  M.  Clay  2.  When 
the  roll-call  was  through  for  the  third  time  it  was  quickly 


NOMINATED  FOR  PRESIDENT.         219' 

discovered  that  a  change  of  two  votes  in  favor  of  Lin- 
coln would  secure  him  the  nomination,  and  the  change 
was  promptly  made.  The  result  was  at  once  known  not 
only  in  the  great  hall,  but  by  the  waiting  multitude  out- 
side; and  the  telegraph  told  the  tale  through  the  land 
before  the  formal  announcement  could  be  made  to  the 
tumultuous  Convention. 

The  news  reached  Mr.  Seward  at  his  home  in 
Auburn,  whither  he  had  retired  temporarily  from  his 
seat  in  the  Senate.  To  his  kind  neighbors,  who  had 
made  preparations  for  a  joyful  celebration  of  his  nomi- 
nation, it  was  a  sudden  and  chilling  reverse.  So  was 
it  to  the  New  York  delegation  in  their  places  at  the 
Convention;  yet,  at  the  earliest  practicable  moment, 
Mr.  Evarts,  pale  with  emotion  yet  unfaltering  in  voice, 
spoke  harmonious  words  of  consent  to  the  choice  of 
the  majority. 

In  the  afternoon  Senator  Hannibal  Hamlin,  of 
Maine,  was  nominated  for  Vice  President,  and  the 
great  hall  was  vacated  by  final  adjournment.  Before 
putting  the  last  motion,  however,  Mr.  Ashmun,  in  the 
course  of  some  parting  remarks,  spoke  of  his  service  in 
Congress  with  Abraham  Lincoln,  and  of  his  own  high 
estimate  of  the  man;  and  in  his  mention  of  Mr.  Hamlin 
said:  "  He  was  a  firm  Democrat  of  the  old  school,  while 
Mr.  Lincoln  was  as  firmly,  and  perhaps  too  much  so,  a 
Whig  of  the  Webster  school." 

The  unexpected  is  not  always  inexplicable.  There 
has  been  no  lack  of  attempted  solutions  of  the  mystery 
of  this  nomination.     Was  it,  after  all,  very  mysterious? 

Mr.  Seward's  supporters,  in  spite  of  the  opposition 


220       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

manifested  in  many  quarters,  during  the  preceding  year 
especially,  were  confident  of  winning  without  a  severe 
contest.  After  the  delegates  to  the  Convention  had 
been  chosen  there  might  naturally  have  been  misgiv- 
ings, as  one  would  suppose  at  this  distance,  but  the 
friends  of  the  New  York  statesman  were  still  sanguine. 
They  miscalculated  his  strength  in  a  manner  that  occa- 
sioned them  several  surprises.  From  neither  Vermont 
nor  Ohio  did  he  receive  a  single  vote  on  any  balloting; 
yet  the  delegates  from  the  former  State  were  counted 
as  unanimous  in  his  favor;  and  half  of  the  Ohio  dele- 
gation, after  a  compliment  for  Governor  Chase,  were 
relied  upon  to  wheel  in  the  same  direction.  Connecti- 
cut and  Rhode  Island  were  refractory,  if  not  as  disap- 
pointing; only  one  vote  was  cast  on  that  side  from  New 
Hampshire;  barely  two  from  Iowa;  not  one  from  Dela- 
ware, Indiana,  Missouri,  or  Illinois.  At  the  first,  Mr. 
Seward  had  no  vote  from  New  Jersey  or  Oregon,  and 
but  a  minority  afterward;  while  from  Pennsylvania  he 
received  but  two  or  three  votes  out  of  fifty-four.  The 
only  States  that  solidly  supported  him  were  New  York, 
Michigan,  Wisconsin,  Minnesota,  and  California.  Little 
more  than  one-third  of  the  Convention  declared  for  him 
as  a  first  choice  —  including  the  ten  votes  from  the  Ter- 
ritories of  Kansas  and  Nebraska  and  from  the  District 
of  Columbia,  which  represented  no  electoral  strength. 
The  components  of  the  Republican  party  were  not 
quite  free  from  conflict;  at  least  they  were  not  homo- 
geneous. It  had  been  made  up  of  the  old  Free-Soil 
party,  of  Anti-Slavery  Whigs,  of  conservative  Whigs, 
of  Wilmot  Proviso  Democrats,  Anti-Nebraska  Demo- 
crats, Anti-Lecompton  Democrats  (results  of  three  dis- 


NOMINATED  FOR  PRESIDENT.         221 

tinct  and  successive  schisms),  and  of  Anti-Slavery  Amer- 
icans. It  had  also  recruits  in  fact  and  in  expectancy 
from  the  conservative  Americans  and  the  old-line 
Whigs.  To  consolidate  these  groups,  not  yet  used  to 
working  together,  and  to  gain  further  accessions,  Mr. 
Seward  did  not  seem  to  a  majority  of  the  delegates  to 
be  the  most  promising  candidate  that  could  be  found. 
He  had  been  long  a  public  man,  writing  and  speak- 
ing much,  from  the  days  of  his  epistolary  controversy 
with  the  Governor  of  Virginia  onward,  and  had  placed 
himself  among  the  foremost  of  those  called  radicals. 
Old  prejudices  thus  engendered  had  been  persistently 
nursed,  and  were  not  to  be  at  once  overcome.  "Ameri- 
cans" complained  that  he  was  on  too  cordial  terms 
with  Archbishop  Hughes,  and  alleged  that  he  had 
made  unallowable  submissions  to  foreign  and  Roman 
Catholic  influences.  His  course  on  other  questions  — 
Anti-Masonry  and  Anti-rentism  in  particular  —  as  well 
as  his  ultra  position  in  regard  to  slavery,  had  alienated 
from  him  a  portion  of  his  late  party  in  his  own  State. 
The  division  into  Seward  Whigs  and  Fillmore  Whigs, 
with  the  consequent  prolonged  altercations,  had  left 
antagonisms  somewhat  allayed,  but  not  extinguished. 
There  were  objections,  also,  to  certain  New  York  polit- 
ical methods,  and  to  what  was  deemed  an  unseemly 
lobbyism  at  Albany,  assumed  by  some  (however  un- 
justly) to  be  in  danger  of  finding  shelter  or  toleration 
at  Washington,  should  Mr.  Seward  become  President. 
Certain  States  that  must  be  carried  in  order  to  suc- 
ceed in  November  were  declared  by  men  entitled  to  be 
heard  as  almost  sure  to  be  lost  with  Mr.  Seward  as  the 
candidate.    This  was  especially  true  of  Pennsylvania  and 


222       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

Indiana,  whose  State  officers  were  to  be  chosen  in  Octo-1 
ber,  and  each  of  which  had  gone  Democratic  in  that 
month  in  1856,  with  fatal  effect.  Pennsylvania  intended 
to  give  Mr.  Cameron  merely  a  complimentary  vote,  a 
large  majority  of  the  delegates  looking  elsewhere  than 
to  Mr.  Seward  for  their  real  choice.  New  Jersey, 
another  of  the  doubtful  States,  named  Mr.  Dayton 
under  like  circumstances;  while  Indiana,  at  one  time 
counted  upon  for  Judge  Bates,  had  early  decided  to 
support  Lincoln  from  the  first.  This  happened  quite 
naturally.  In  Indiana  Lincoln  was  not  only  well  known 
to  members  of  the  bar  and  largely  to  the  people,  but  he 
had  served  in  Congress  with  Caleb  B.  Smith,  a  leading 
delegate  from  that  State,  and  was  personally  on  quite 
friendly  terms  with  him.  Mr.  Smith  had  been  origi- 
nally in  favor  of  Lincoln's  nomination,  though  not 
openly  committed  before  going  to  Chicago.  Indiana 
was  only  less  zealous  in  that  behalf  than  Illinois.  This 
fact  had  its  influence  with  Pennsylvania.  In  the  east- 
ern part  of  that  State,  especially  in  Philadelphia,  there 
was  a  preference  for  Judge  McLean.  There  the  Amer- 
ican and  Conservative  influences,  which  it  was  a  spe- 
cial object  to  unite  on  Andrew  G.  Curtin,  already  nom- 
inated for  Governor,  were  strongly  opposed  to  Mr. 
Seward.  The  pressure  from  this  quarter  —  Mr.  Curtin 
himself  being  present  at  Chicago  and  very  active  —  was 
a  potent  one  in  constraining  other  States.  Western 
Pennsylvania  was  more  inclined  to  Mr.  Seward  or 
Mr.  Wade,  in  sympathy  with  Northern  Ohio.  The 
eastern  delegates  nearly  carried  their  point  of  naming 
Judge  Bates,  at  a  private  consultation,  as  Pennsylvania's 


NOMINATED  EOR  PRESIDENT.         223 

second  choice;  but  the  western  members  of  the  delega- 
tion concentrated  on  Lincoln,  who  had  a  small  majority 
over  Judge  Bates.  It  came  to  be  understood  in  good 
time  that  there  were  delegates  from  Massachusetts, 
Maine  and  Vermont,  who,  not  unfriendly  to  Seward, 
would  humor  the  Pennsylvanians  by  going  over  to  Lin- 
coln, but  not  to  McLean  or  Bates. 

When,  on  the  second  roll-call  of  States  in  conven- 
tion, the  chairman  of  the  Pennsylvania  delegation  re- 
sponded for  his  State,  "  Pennsylvania  casts  fifty-four 
votes  for  Abraham  Lincoln  of  Illinois,"  the  effect  was 
electric.  A  new  outburst  of  noisy  demonstration  fol- 
lowed. Other  States  fell  in  line,  more  or  less  unitedly, 
until  at  the  close  Lincoln  had  only  three  or  four  votes 
less  than  Seward.  The  way  of  concentrating  opposi- 
tion to  the  latter  had  been  found. 

One  other  circumstance  is  not  to  be  forgotten.  As 
against  Douglas,  the  canvass  of  1858  had  shown  that 
Lincoln  could  carry  Illinois,  strongly  Democratic  of  old 
and  now  a  close  State  at  best;  but  whether  another 
candidate  could  do  so  in  the  present  canvass  was  doubt 
ful.  The  doubt  was  not  diminished  by  what  had  hap- 
pened three  weeks  before  at  the  Charleston  Democratic 
National  Convention.  No  one  carefully  considering 
the  matter  can  fail  to  discern  that  during  the  past  six 
years,  in  his  speeches,  in  his  debates  with  Douglas,  and 
by  his  personal  efforts,  Lincoln  had  done  more  effective 
work  towards  bringing  what  remained  of  the  old  Whig 
party  and  all  the  other  elements  of  opposition  into  the 
Republican  organization,  and  in  concentrating  its  pur- 
poses on  what  was  fundamental  in  its  origin,  than  any 


224       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

or  all  of  his  competitors  at  the  Chicago  Convention. 
He  was  naturally  and  rightfully  its  choice.  His  nom- 
ination consolidated  and  saved  the  Republican  party. 

To  Lincoln  himself,  quietly  waiting  at  Springfield, 
the  event  was  not  altogether  a  surprise.  The  first  vote 
confirmed  his  previous  impression  that  the  choice  lay 
between  Mr.  Seward  and  himself  The  second  ballot 
he  construed  as  pretty  surely  indicating  what  the  third 
speedily  settled.  Pending  the  latter,  he  had  stepped 
into  the  Journal  office,  where  many  were  now  anxiously 
expecting  the  next  words  from  the  Convention.  A 
friend  brought  him,  in  a  few  moments,  a  written  mes- 
sage, and  called  for  three  cheers  for  the  next  President. 
With  manifest  emotion  he  stood  silent  for  a  brief  time, 
■then  withdrew  through  the  midst  of  cheering  crowds 
to  take  the  news,  he  said,  to  "  a  little  woman  down  at 
the  house. "     It  was  the  loyal  impulse  of  a  loving  heart. 

The  town  grew  more  and  more  exultant  as  the  news 
rapidly  spread.  A  hundred  guns  were  fired  with  zeal- 
ous promptitude.  A  ratification  mass  meeting,  with 
bonfires  and  illuminations,  was  extemporized  in  the 
evening,  and  the  multitude  on  its  adjournment  moved 
to  the  house  of  the  nominee,  who  there  spoke  a  few 
words  in  response  to  congratulations  and  cheers,  and 
invited  in  all  who  could  find  room.  Coming  and  going 
until  after  midnight,  all  found  an  opportunity  to  press 
the  hand  which  was  ever  after  to  be  so  busy  and  often 
sorely  weary. 

On  Saturday  a  committee  of  one  from  each  State, 
on  behalf  of  the  Convention,  and  accompanied  by  its 
presiding  officer,  met  Lincoln  in  the  same  house,  where 
all  had  been  so  quiet  when  this  week  began,  to  give 


NOMINATED  EOR  PRESIDENT.         225 

him  formal  notice  of  his  nomination.  He  replied  to 
Mr.  Ashmun's  brief  address  in  tones  of  voice  more  than 
yesterday  of  the  minor,  melancholy  kind  peculiar  to 
his  darker  moods. 

Deeply  and  even  painfully  sensible  of  the  great  responsi- 
bility which  I  could  almost  wish  had  fallen  upon  some  one 
of  the  far  more  eminent  and  experienced  statesmen  whose 
distinguished  names  were  before  the  Convention,  I  shall,  by 
your  leave,  consider  more  fully  the  resolutions  of  the  Con- 
vention, denominated  the  platform,  and,  without  unnecessary 
delay,  respond  to  you,  Mr.  Chairman,  in  writing,  not  doubt- 
ing that  the  platform  will  be  found  satisfactory,  and  the  nom- 
ination gratefully  accepted.  And  now  I  will  not  longer  defer 
the  pleasure  of  taking  you,  and  each  of  you,  by  the  hand. 

His  letter  of  acceptance  had  a  brevity  which  has 
gone  out  of  fashion  with  nominees  in  these  latter  days: 

Springfield,  Iu,.,  May  23,  i860. 
Hon.  Geo.  Ashmun,  President  of  the  Republican  National 

Convention : 

Sir — I  accept  the  nomination  tendered  me  by  the  Conven- 
tion over  which  you  presided,  and  of  which  I  am  formally 
apprised  in  the  letter  of  yourself  and  others,  acting  as  a  com- 
mittee of  the  Convention  for  that  purpose. 

The  declaration  of  principles  and  sentiments  which  ac- 
companies your  letter  meets  my  approval,  and  it  shall  be  my 
care  not  to  violate  or  disregard  it  in  any  part. 

Imploring  the  assistance  of  Divine  Providence,  and  with 
due  regard  to  the  views  and  feelings  of  all  who  were  repre- 
sented in  the  Convention ;  to  the  rights  of  all  the  States  and 
Territories  and  the  people  of  the  nation ;  to  the  inviolability 
of  the  Constitution,  and  to  the  perpetual  union,  harmony 
and  prosperity  of  all,  I  am  most  happy  to  co-operate  for  the 
practical  success  of  the  principles  declared  by  the  Conven- 
tion. 

Your  obliged  friend  and  fellow-citizen, 

Abraham  Lincoln. 

15 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

i860. 

The  Presidential  Canvass. 

Mr.  Douglas  had  been,  next  to  Mr.  Buchanan,  the 
leading  candidate  for  the  Democratic  nomination  at  the 
Cincinnati  National  Convention  in  1856.  When  his 
competitor  had  received  a  majority  of  votes,  though 
less  than  the  required  two-thirds,  Douglas  ended  the 
contest  by  withdrawing  his  name.  There  was  then 
little  reason  to  doubt  that  the  retiring  rival,  strong  with 
his  party  both  North  and  South,  would  be  its  leading 
candidate  for  the  nomination  four  years  later;  and 
would  he  not  be  fairly  entitled  to  the  benefit  of  his  own 
precedent  in  treating  a  majority  vote  as  sufficient? 
Before  adjourning,  the  Cincinnati  Convention  took  the 
unusual  course  of  naming  the  place  where  the  next 
Presidential  Convention  should  be  held.  Not  less  sin- 
gular, that  place  was  Charleston,  S.  C.  In  spite  of  all 
intermediate  dangers  —  for  the  Governors  of  South 
Carolina  and  other  States  in  the  same  year  plotted 
secession  in  case  of  Fremont's  election  —  Charleston  in 
April,  i860,  was  not  so  "foreign"  as  it  claimed  to  be  in 
December.  Douglas  had  a  majority  in  the  Convention 
clearly;  but  before  a  ballot  was  taken,  nearly  all  the 
delegates  from  the  Cotton  States  had  withdrawn,  after 
a  fierce  wrangle  about  the  platform:  and  even  then  the 

(226) 


A  QUADRILATERAL  CONTEST.         227 

fatal  two-thirds  rule,  which  required  the  same  number 
to  nominate  as  before,  remained  unchanged. 

The  time  had  already  come  —  a  year  and  a  half 
after  the  serious  warning  given  him  by  Lincoln  near 
the  close  of  the  Senatorial  debate  —  when  Douglas 
himself  was  too  "  sectional  "  for  the  South.  His  party 
split  on  the  identical  issues  pressed  home  to  him  by 
Lincoln  at  Freeport  and  Jonesboro. 

The  Charleston  Convention  dispersed  thirteen  days 
before  the  Republican  Convention  met  at  Chicago;  and 
it  was  a  month  after  that  event  when  the  reassembling 
—  with  vacancies  filled  —  occurred  at  Baltimore.  The 
seceding  delegates  organized  at  Charleston,  and  ad- 
journed to  meet  at  Richmond  near  the  same  date.  The 
Baltimore  Convention  was  abbreviated  by  a  fresh  seces- 
sion, which  included  members  from  Virginia,  Maryland, 
Delaware,  North  Carolina,  Kentucky,  Tennessee  and 
California.  Caleb  Cushing,  too,  who  had  presided  at 
Charleston,  and  at  Baltimore  until  now,  resigned  the 
chair,  and  with  B.  F.  Butler  and  others  from  Massa- 
chusetts went  over  to  the  second  gathering  of  bolters. 
Douglas  having  received  (June  23d)  two-thirds  of  the 
votes  cast,  though  not  of  a  full  convention,  was  declared 
the  Democratic  nominee  for  President.  A  Southern 
running  mate  was  found  in  the  person  of  Herschel  V. 
Johnson,  of  Georgia.  The  combined  seceders  nomi- 
nated John  C.  Breckinridge,  of  Kentucky,  and  Joseph 
Lane,  of  Oregon,  for  President  and  Vice  President,  on 
the  Southern  platform  rejected  at  Charleston. 

Before  the  final  consummation  of  the  Democratic 
schism,  still  another  National  Convention  met  at  Bal- 
timore (May  19th),  and  nominated  John  Bell,  of  Ten- 


228       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

nessee,  for  President,  and  Edward  Everett,  of  Massa- 
chusetts, for  Vice  President.  The  party  was  christened 
"  Constitutional  Union,"  and  resolved  "  to  recognize 
no  political  principle  other  than  the  Constitution  of  the 
country,  the  union  of  the  States,  and  the  enforcement 
of  the  laws."  The  Convention  was  not  numerically 
large.  Its  constituents  were  mainly  "  old  line  Whigs  " 
and  "Americans  "  hostile  to  the  Democracy  but  un- 
reconciled to  the  Republican  party.  Its  candidates 
were  destined  to  receive  more  votes  than  was  generally 
anticipated  at  the  time  of  their  nomination. 

Thus  before  the  end  of  June  the  work  had  been  laid 
out  for  an  unprecedented  quadrilateral  contest. 

To  animate  quite  as  much  as  to  enlighten  the  voter 
seemed  to  be  each  party's  purpose  in  the  ensuing  cam- 
paign. Vote-winning,  if  not  a  fine  art,  is  a  complex 
one.  The  press  is  alert  and  ardent;  the  stump  orator 
abounds;  there  are  mass  meetings  and  clubs;  banquets, 
barbecues,  processions;  the  sound  of  fife  and  drum,  of 
horn  and  cannon.  There  must  be  outward  symbols  of 
faith  appealing  to  sense  and  sentiment:  "  hickory  poles," 
"  log  cabins,"  "  rails,"  and  whatever  else  will  best  touch 
the  sympathies  of  the  million.  It  is  idle  to  quarrel  with 
these  things.  There  is  enough  else  that  is  more  re- 
pulsive and  lamentable  in  every  important  canvass, 
wherever  there  are  liberal  suffrage  and  large  constitu- 
encies. 

One  novelty  of  the  campaign  of  i860  was  an  organ- 
ization called  the  "  Wide- A  wakes,"  in  which  many 
thousands  of  young  Republicans  took  part,  with  parades 
and  torchlight  marchings,  enlivening  their  own  zeal, 
swelling  the  ranks  with  new  voters,  and  arousing  an 


A  QUADRILATERAL  CONTEST.         229 

efficient  spirit  wherever  its  work  was  visible,  as  it  speed- 
ily came  to  be  all  over  the  land.  Was  it  not,  too,  a  pre- 
liminary training,  as  yet  quite  unconsciously,  for  keep- 
ing step  in  sterner  phalanx  and  battalion  on  a  coming 
day?  Never  was  there  a  party,  in  any  canvass,  more 
thoroughly  in  earnest  than  the  Republicans  in  i860. 

Again  and  again  Lincoln  had  given  time,  talent  and 
travel  to  urging  the  claims  of  the  Presidential  candidates 
of  his  own  faith.  Now  he  was  to  have  a  respite  from 
these  labors,  but  by  no  means  to  remain  in  quiet  and 
solitude.  He  did  not,  like  Douglas,  see  fit  to  take  the 
stump  in  his  own  behalf  as  a  candidate  for  the  great 
office.  But  from  the  very  beginning  he  kept  close 
watch  upon  the  course  of  events,  North  and  South.  He 
had  few  hours  of  idleness  during  all  those  summer  and 
autumn  months;  not  a  day  passed  without  its  visitors 
coming  single  or  in  throngs.  His  modest  dwelling,  a 
few  squares  away  from  the  chief  State  and  county  build- 
ings, soon  ceased  to  be  the  place  in  which  he  commun- 
icated in  person  with  the  public.  He  had  a  room  for 
this  purpose  in  the  State  House;  yet  Mrs.  Lincoln  had 
her  calls,  too,  from  far  and  near,  in  the  little  parlor  at 
home,  and  heartily  did  her  part  in  a  social  way.  Her 
guests  were  affably  entertained,  and  with  each  of  them 
such  an  occasion  was  sure  to  re-live  as  a  pleasant 
memory. 

Usually,  the  voter  had  been  practically  left  to  choose 
between  two  Presidential  candidates.  Though  it  was 
otherwise  now,  there  were  really  but  two  controlling 
subjects  on  which  opinion  was  divided:  the  Union  and 
Slavery.  As  to  the  first  of  these,  neither  the  Douglas 
nor  the   Breckinridge   platform   had   anything    to   say 


230        LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

beyond  a  general  reaffirmation  (alike)  of  the  Democratic 
platform  of  1856,  which  declared  "that  all  efforts  of 
Abolitionists  or  others,  made  to  induce  Congress  to 
interfere  with  questions  of  slavery,  or  to  take  incipient 
steps  in  relation  thereto,  are  calculated  to  lead  to  the 
most  alarming  and  dangerous  consequences;  and  that 
all  such  efforts  have  an  inevitable  tendency  to  diminish 
the  happiness  of  the  people  and  endanger  the  stability 
and  permanency  of  the  Union,  and  ought  not  to  be 
countenanced  by  any  friend  of  our  political  institu- 
tions." The  same  platform  affirmed:  "That  the  Dem- 
ocratic party  will  faithfully  abide  by  and  uphold  the 
principles  laid  down  in  the  Kentucky  and  Virginia  res- 
olutions of  1798  and  in  the  report  of  Mr.  Madison  to 
the  Virginia  Legislature  in  1799;  that  it  adopts  those 
principles  as  constituting  one  of  the  main  foundations 
of  its  political  creed,  and  is  resolved  to  carry  them  out 
in  their  obvious  meaning  and  import." 

While  both  wings  of  the  Democratic  party  were 
pledged  in  these  terms,  it  is  to  be  noted  that  Jefferson 
Davis  and  the  supporters  of  Mr.  Breckinridge  in  gen- 
eral openly  construed  the  "  Resolutions  of  1798  "  as  an 
explicit  declaration  of  extreme  State-rights  doctrines, 
including  the  right  of  a  State  to  secede  from  the  Union. 

The  Republicans  had  expressly  affirmed  at  Chicago 
"  that  the  Federal  Constitution,  the  rights  of  the  States, 
and  the  Union  of  the  States,  must  and  shall  be  pre- 
served." They  also  denounced  the  threats  of  disunion 
made  in  Congress  by  Democrats  "  in  case  of  a  popular 
overthrow  of  their  ascendency,  as  denying  the  vital 
principles  of  a  free  government,  and  as  an  avowal  of 
contemplated  treason."    How  the  supporters  of  Lincoln, 


A  QUADRILATERAL  CONTEST.         231 

Douglas  and  Breckinridge  respectively  stood  on  the 
other  of  the  two  questions  (slavery)  needs  no  further 
indication  here.  The  Bell  party  made  the  Union  its 
specialty,  leaving  slavery  unmentioned  in  its  platform. 

There  were  to  be  some  State  elections  at  the  South 
in  July  and  August,  and  at  the  North  in  September 
and  October.  So  far  as  the  Republicans  were  directly 
concerned,  it  mattered  little  how  North  Carolina  or 
Kentucky  should  vote;  yet  the  posture  of  those  States 
on  the  Union  question,  to  be  judged  from  those  elec- 
tions, was  of  general  interest.  In  Vermont  and  Maine, 
which  held  elections  in  September,  there  was  no  doubt 
of  large  Republican  majorities,  yet  their  relative  mag- 
nitude in  comparison  with  those  of  previous  years  might 
show  the  direction  of  the  popular  tide.  The  October 
elections  in  Pennsylvania,  Ohio  and  Indiana  would  be 
of  great  significance.  There  was  thus  something  to 
look  forward  to,  from  month  to  month,  to  relieve  the 
monotony  of  waiting  for  the  final  event  in  November. 

Kentucky  and  North  Carolina,  conservative  Union 
States  as  they  were,  in  their  elections  confirmed  very 
conclusively  that  the  South  in  general  would  give  no 
substantial  support  to  Douglas.  His  friends  had  not 
been  able  to  control  the  Democratic  organization  in 
any  slave-holding  State  but  Missouri.  Bell  and  Breck- 
inridge were  the  competitors  between  whom  the  South- 
ern vote  would  be  chiefly  divided,  and  the  summer 
elections  favored  Bell. 

Maine  and  Vermont,  early  in  September,  elected 
Republican  Governors  by  majorities  which  showed  a 
marked  increase  of  party  strength.  In  Ohio,  a  month 
after,    there    were    Republican  gains.     But    the    most 


232        LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

convincing*  signs  were  the  election  of  Mr.  Curtin  as 
Governor  of  Pennsylvania,  by  more  than  32,000  ma- 
jority, and  of  Colonel  Henry  S.  Lane  as  Governor  of 
Indiana  by  nearly  10,000;  while  in  both  these  States  the 
entire  opposition  was  united  against  the  Republican 
candidates. 

As  to  New  York  there  was  anxiety.  In  previous 
years  disaster  had  sometimes  rather  unexpectedly  over- 
taken Whig  or  Republican  candidates  in  that  State  who 
had  been  nominated  against  the  wishes  of  Thurlow 
Weed.  That  gentleman  had  been  almost  heart-broken 
over  Seward's  defeat,  and  left  Chicago  in  a  gloomy 
mood,  seemingly  inconsolable,  but  was  prevailed  upon 
to  visit  Springfield  before  returning  East.  An  inter- 
view with  Lincoln  so  favorably  impressed  the  sagacious 
visitor  that  he  soon  entered  heartily  into  his  support. 
Before  the  canvass  ended,  Seward  himself  actively 
joined  in  the  work,  making  several  speeches  and  rally- 
ing his  friends. 

But  all  danger  was  not  over  in  New  York  —  the 
State  on  whose  vote  so  many  Presidential  elections 
have  turned,  and  whose  aid  seemed  now  indispensable. 
The  commercial  metropolis  was  growing  nervous  about 
the  result  and  the  future.  The  Democratic  leaders 
there  were  putting  forth  every  possible  exertion  to 
divert  the  electoral  vote  of  the  State  from  Lincoln. 
Finally,  a  fusion  ticket  was  made  up,  on  the  plea  of 
averting  imminent  peril  to  the  Union,  the  electoral  can- 
didates being  distributed,  on  agreed  terms,  between  the 
three  other  Presidential  candidates.  Would  not  this 
combination  obtain  a  clear  majority  in  the  State? 

Other  like  fusions  were  made.     The  three  opposing 


A  QUADRILATERAL  CONTEST.         233 

parties  in  New  Jersey  formed  a  common  electoral  ticket; 
and  in  Rhode  Island  there  was  a  combination  between 
the  partisans  of  Douglas  and  Breckinridge.  Even  in 
Pennsylvania  the  latter  experiment  was  tried,  despite 
the  defeat  of  a  fusion  State  ticket  in  October. 

Mr.  Seward,  in  a  speech  at  his  home  in  Auburn, 
November  5th  —  the  eve  of  the  Presidential  election 
—  told  his  auditors  that  "  amid  the  jargon  of  these  dis- 
cordant members  of  the  Fusion  party  "  they  would  have 
but  one  argument;  "  and  that  argument  is,  that  so  sure 
as  you  are  so  perverse  as  to  cast  your  vote  singly,  law- 
fully, honestly,  as  you  ought  to  do,  for  one  candidate 
for  the  Presidency,  instead  of  scattering  it  among  three 
candidates,  so  that  no  President  may  be  elected,  this 
Union  shall  come  down  over  your  heads,  involving  you 
and  us  in  a  common  ruin!  .  .  .  But  I  tell  them 
.  .  .  that,  when  to-morrow's  sun  shall  have  set,  and 
the  next  morning's  sun  shall  have  risen  on  the  Amer- 
ican people,  rejoicing  in  the  election  of  Abraham  Lin- 
coln to  the  Presidency,  these  men  who  to-day  sympa- 
thize with,  uphold,  support  and  excuse  the  disunionists, 
will  have  to  make  a  sudden  choice,  and  choose  whether, 
in  the  language  of  the  Senator  from  Georgia,  they  will 
go  for  treason,  and  so  make  it  respectable,  or  whether 
they  will  go  with  us  for  Freedom,  for  the  Constitution, 
and  for  the  eternal  Union." 

On  the  night  of  the  6th  of  November,  as  the  tele- 
graph reported  at  Springfield  the  vote  of  State  after 
State,  amid  the  cheers  and  congratulations  of  his  friends, 
Lincoln  waited  at  the  Republican  headquarters,  hope- 
ful but  not  quite  secure,  until  a  late  hour,  unwilling  to 
go  home  without  something  fully  conclusive  from  New 


234       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

York.  At  last  it  came  from  a  source  that  could  be 
implicitly  trusted.  Fusion  was  beaten  in  the  great 
State  beyond  a  doubt:  a  majority  of  the  electoral  votes 
of  the  nation  was  sure  for  Abraham  Lincoln. 

Every  free  State  save  New  Jersey  had  chosen  Repub- 
lican electors;  and  even  in  New  Jersey  (where  the  mixed 
electoral  ticket  had  three  candidates  for  Douglas,  two 
for  Breckinridge,  and  two  for  Bell),  the  combination 
had  not  been  perfect,  only  the  Douglas  electors  being 
chosen,  leaving  the  other  four  to  Lincoln.  In  Illinois 
he  had  nearly  12,000  over  Douglas  on  the  popular  vote, 
and  a  clear  majority  of  all,  Bell  having  but  4,913,  and 
Breckinridge,  2,404;  in  Pennsylvania  a  clear  majority 
of  over  66,000;  and  in  New  York  more  than  50,000  over 
the  united  opposition.  In  the  border  States  of  Del- 
aware, Maryland,  Virginia,  Kentucky  and  Missouri,  the 
Republican  vote  numbered  altogether  but  26,430;  and 
there  was  no  Republican  electoral  ticket  put  in  nomina- 
tion in  any  other  slave-holding  State.  In  the  free 
States  Lincoln's  total  vote  was  1,831,180;  in  all,  1,857,- 
610.  Breckinridge  had  in  the  North,  including  esti- 
mates of  his  share  of  the  Fusion  votes,  an  aggregate 
of  279,211;  and  Douglas  had  in  the  whole  South, 
163,525 — of  which  more  than  one-third  were  cast  in 
Missouri,  where  his  friends  had  secured  the  regular 
Democratic  organization.  Bell  carried  Virginia,  Ken- 
tucky and  Tennessee  distinctly  on  the  Union  issue. 
Lincoln  and  Bell  each  carried  his  own  State,  and  Doug- 
las and  Breckinridge  were  both  beaten  in  theirs.  In 
the  whole  South,  Breckinridge  had  but  54,898  more 
votes  than  Bell,  and  was,  on  the  whole  vote  of  the  slave- 
holding  States,  in  an  actual  minority  of  over  135,000. 


A  QUADRILATERAL  CONTEST.         235 

The  whole  number  of  electoral  votes  at  the  time 
was  303;  of  which  the  aggregate  carried  for  Lincoln 
was  180;  for  Breckinridge,  J2\  for  Bell,  39,  and  for 
Douglas,  12. 

The  Chicago  Convention  had  not  counted  too  care- 
fully on  the  importance  of  Pennsylvania,  Indiana  and 
New  Jersey.  Did  the  opponents  of  Seward's  nomina- 
tion count  as  justly  as  Lincoln  subsequently  did  on  the 
hazard  of  offending  New  York?  Without  that  State 
he  would  not  have  had  a  majority  of  the  electoral  vote, 
but  barely  145,  while  the  number  required  for  a  choice 
was  152.  Without  the  27  votes  of  Pennsylvania  and 
the  4  received  from  New  Jersey,  he  would  have  had 

—  carrying  New  York  and  every  other  free  State  — 
but  149.     With  the  loss  of  Pennsylvania  and  Indiana 

—  to  say  nothing  of  the  effect  of  their  adverse  verdict 
in  October  upon  other  States  —  he  would  have  had 
but  140. 

In  any  of  these  contingencies  the  election  of  Pres- 
ident would  have  devolved  upon  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives— -with  what  result,  as  parties  were  then 
shaped,  is  not  at  all  certain,  and  it  is  useless  to  con- 
jecture. The  choice  of  Vice  President  would  have  been 
made  by  the  Democratic  Senate,  which  had  so  lately 
declared  for  Federal  protection  to  slavery  in  the  Ter- 
ritories. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

1860-1861. 

South   Carolina  Revolts  —  Secession   Tumult  in   the   Gulf 
States  —  The  President-Elect  Bides  His  Time. 

A  Republican  President  could  not  have  greatly- 
harmed  the  Southern  people  so  long  as  their  representa- 
tives kept  their  seats  in  Congress.  There  was  in  fact 
no  apprehension  of  such  danger.  But  separation  from 
the  North  and  the  establishment  of  an  empire  exclu- 
sively their  own  had  long  been  a  cherished  dream  of 
extremists  in  the  Cotton  States;  they  had  through 
secret  organizations  and  otherwise  prepared  for  its 
realization;  and  they  chose  not  to  wait  for  any  better 
opportunity  to  revolt. 

It  was  fitting  that  South  Carolina  should  take  the 
lead.  Governor  Gist  called  its  Legislature  to  meet  in 
special  session  on  the  5th  of  November,  the  day  before 
the  Presidential  election — a  normal  proceeding,  because 
that  body  was  to  choose  electors.  In  his  proclamation, 
however,  after  specifying  the  legitimate  object,  the  Gov- 
ernor named  another  one  nearer  his  heart.  He  wished 
immediate  secession.  An  act  was  passed  by  the  State 
Senate  on  the  9th,  and  concurred  in  by  the  House  of 
Representatives  three  days  after,  providing  for  a  State 
convention  to  take  formal  action  on  that  question. 

Either  there  was  a  great  deal  of  misemployed  ora- 
tory or  these  people  thought  they  were  initiating  civil 

(236) 


SOUTH  CAROLINA  LEADS  A  REVOLT.  237 

war.  The  presiding  officer  of  the  Senate  said  on  first 
taking  the  chair:  "  I  do  not  seek  to  lift  the  veil  that 
hides  the  future  from  our  sight,  but  we  have  all  an 
instinctive  feeling  that  we  are  on  the  eve  of  great  events. 
...  In  our  unity  will  be  our  strength,  physical  and 
moral.  No  human  power  can  withstand  or  break  down 
a  united  people,  standing  upon  their  own  soil  and  de- 
fending their  homes  and  firesides."  Mr.  Chesnut,  who 
had  just  withdrawn  from  the  United  States  Senate,  in 
a  serenade  speech  in  the  evening  of  the  same  day,  spoke 
in  a  more  excited  vein:  "  For  himself,  he  would  unfurl 
the  Palmetto  flag,  fling  it  to  the  breeze,  and,  with  the 
spirit  of  a  brave  man,  determine  tc  live  and  die  as 
became  our  glorious  ancestors,  and  ring  the  clarion 
notes  of  defiance  in  the  ears  of  an  insolent  foe!" 

Congressman  Boyce  said,  the  next  evening  at  Col- 
umbia: "In  my  opinion,  the  South  ought  not  to  sub- 
mit. If  you  intend  to  resist,  the  way  to  resist  in  earnest 
is  to  act;  the  way  to  enact  revolution  is  to  stare  it  in 
the  face.  I  think  the  only  policy  for  us  is  to  arm  as 
soon  as  we  receive  authentic  intelligence  of  the  election 
of  Lincoln." 

Many  other  speeches,  as  well  as  the  message  of  the 
Governor,  were  of  similar  warlike  tone.  Already  mil- 
itary companies  had  been  formed  and  were  actively  drill- 
ing, to  prepare  for  the  contemplated  emergency. 

In  Georgia  a  "  military  convention  "  was  held  at 
Milledgeville  (then  the  State  Capital)  on  the  12th  of 
November.  Governor  Brown,  who  was  one  of  the 
speakers,  said  it  was  the  duty  of  other  Southern  States 
to  sustain  South  Carolina:  "  He  would  like  to  see  the 
Federal  troops  dare  attempt  the  coercion  of  a  seceding 


238       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

Southern  State!  For  every  Georgian  who  fell  in  con- 
flict thus  incited,  the  lives  of  two  Federal  soldiers  should 
expiate  the  outrage  on  State  sovereignty."  Of  course, 
the  "  military  "  gentlemen  there  assembled  voted  for 
the  resolution  offered  in  favor  of  secession.  Disunion 
orators  did  not  anticipate  bloodless  revolution.  They 
looked  forward  to  civil  war  without  a  shudder.  They 
seemed,  indeed,  to  enjoy  the  prospect  and  its  promise 
of  a  harvest  of  glory. 

On  the  day  after  the  election,  Judge  Magrath,  of 
the  United  States  District  Court  in  South  Carolina,  re- 
signed; as  did  also  the  District  Attorney,  and  the  Col- 
lector of  the  Port  at  Charleston.  Mr.  Hammond,  fol- 
lowing his  colleague,  resigned  his  seat  in  the  United 
States  Senate  directly  after  the  passage  of  the  act  pro- 
viding for  the  Secession  State  Convention.  The  South 
Carolina  representatives  were  hardly  more  tardy.  So 
far  as  possible,  every  relation  of  the  State  to  the  Union 
was  to  be  terminated  at  once. 

In  the  other  Cotton  States  the  work  of  secession 
was  aggressively  pushed,  but  South  Carolina  alone  had 
taken  the  fatal  step  before  the  close  of  December. 

Still  a  private  citizen  at  Springfield,  Lincoln  was 
not  a  dull  spectator  of  passing  events.  From  his  youth 
he  had  been  a  constant  and  eager  reader  of  newspapers, 
both  Northern  and  Southern,  and  kept  himself  well  in- 
formed on  public  matters  from  day  to  day.  There  were 
certainly  few  who,  at  this  time,  formed  as  accurate 
judgments  on  current  affairs  and  their  future  bearings 
as  he.  Would  the  secession  dragon  be  strangled  at  its 
birth,  or  allowed  in  the  remaining  months  of  the  exist- 
ing administration  to  get  firmly  on  its  feet  and  to  grow 


SOUTH  CAROLINA  LEADS  A  REVOLT.    239 

strong?  Whatever  he  may  have  replied  in  his  own 
thought,  he  surely  could  not  intermeddle  at  this  stage. 
Even  in  his  private  words  he  was  discreetly  reserved. 
From  the  moment  his  election  was  assured,  how- 
ever, his  mind  was  turned  not  only  to  the  organization 
of  his  administration,  but  also  contingently  to  its  policy. 
Many  visitations  were  made  to  him,  some  by  invitation 
and  more  without,  for  consultation  on  both  these  sub- 
jects. On  the  night  of  the  November  election,  wake- 
fully  meditating  on  the  task  before  him,  he  completed 
in  his  own  mind,  so  he  stated  to  Mr.  Welles,  a  cast  of 
the  Cabinet  substantially  as  ultimately  constituted.  One 
leading  purpose  in  choosing  its  members  was  to  con- 
solidate the  Republican  party.  He  certainly  thought 
of  Mr.  Seward  as  first  of  the  list  at  a  still  earlier  day. 
In  fact,  it  might  be  plausibly  argued  that  he  was  com- 
mitted to  this  more  than  to  any  other  appointment  be- 
fore the  canvass  really  opened.  Thurlow  Weed,  who 
had  visited  Lincoln  in  May,  returned  home  to  enter 
actively  into  the  campaign  with  apparently  as  confident 
an  expectation  of  Seward's  appointment  as  if  it  had 
been  promised.  Mr.  Raymond,  of  the  New  York 
Times,  indeed,  writing  to  that  paper  from  Auburn  a 
day  or  two  after  the  nomination,  positively  asserted 
that  Seward  would  take  no  office  under  Lincoln,  and 
this  probably  accorded  with  the  feeling  of  the  Senator 
and  his  interviewer  at  the  time.  The  whole  spirit  of 
Mr.  Raymond's  letter  was  that  of  a  discontent  sug- 
gestive of  mutiny.  But  this  humor  did  not  last.  There 
is  an  interesting  gleam  of  revelation  from  Mr.  Weed 
himself  in  a  letter  to  the  London  Times  a  year  or  two 
later,  referring  to  Seward's  alleged  insult  to  the  Duke 


24o       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

of  Newcastle  at  a  dinner  to  the  Prince  of  Wales  in  New 
York,  about  the  middle  of  October,  The  idea  was  pre- 
posterous, Mr.  Weed  argued,  especially  because  Mr. 
Seward  had  then  "  reason  to  expect  to  be  Secretary  of 
State  in  the  new  administration."  On  the  15th  of 
November  Lincoln  said  to  the  writer:  "  It  is  due  to 
Mr.  Seward  that  he  should  be  tendered  the  office  of 
Secretary  of  State.  I  think  he  is  just  the  man  to  be 
Minister  to  England."  The  tender  was  made  to  him 
soon  after  the  meeting  of  the  electoral  colleges  (in  De- 
cember) —  made  in  perfect  good  faith,  with  the  wish 
as  well  as  the  expectation  that  the  place  would  be 
accepted.  It  does  not  follow,  however,  that  under 
other  conditions  the  most  important  foreign  mission 
might  not  have  been  offered  him  in  preference. 

Governor  Chase,  who  had  been  elected  the  previous 
winter  to  a  full  term  in  the  United  States  Senate,  to 
begin  on  the  4th  of  March,  1861,  aspired  to  be  Secre- 
tary of  State.  In  the  conversation  already  mentioned, 
on  the  15th  of  November,  Lincoln  said,  as  occasion  was 
presented:  "  I  think  Governor  Chase  would  make  an 
excellent  Secretary  of  the  Treasury."  This  expression 
was  given  in  such  a  way  as  to  leave  no  doubt  of  a 
serious  purpose  to  make  this  appointment.  There  was 
an  embarrassment,  however,  not  then  hinted,  in  the 
circumstance  that  Mr.  Cameron,  of  Pennsylvania,  who 
was  intended  for  a  position  in  the  Cabinet,  was  not 
content  to  have  anything  less  than  the  Treasury  De- 
partment. Cameron  was  invited  to  Springfield  before 
the  close  of  December,  and  on  his  return  home  certain 
of  his  confidential  friends  were  assured  that  he  had  the 
promise  of  either  that  or  the  War  Department.     On 


BIDING  HIS  TIME— TROUBLED  DAYS.    241 

invitation,  Mr.  Chase  visited  Springfield  on  the  3d  of 
January  to  confer  with  the  President-elect,  who  asked 
him  whether  he  would  be  willing  to  accept  the  office 
of  Secretary  of  the  Treasury.  Mr.  Chase  requested 
time  to  consult  his  friends  before  definitely  replying. 
If,  strictly  speaking,  the  place  was  not  then  offered  him, 
as  Mr.  Chase  afterward  stated,  Lincoln's  consent  to  this 
request  was  a  practical  committal.  No  message  of 
declination  was  ever  received,  and  an  acceptance  was 
evidently  expected. 

As  to  the  War  Department,  it  is  certain  that  Lincoln 
at  one  time  manifested  a  disposition  to  place  Cassius 
M.  Clay  at  its  head.  This  was  clearly  indicated  to  the 
writer  in  November.  General  Clay  himself  regarded 
the  place  as  practically  promised  him  at  an  earlier  date. 
If  this  view  is  correct,  there  was  a  double  reason  for  the 
fact  that  the  alternative  promise  to  Mr.  Cameron  was 
recalled  just  before  the  invited  interview  with  Mr.  Chase 
in  January.  From  that  time  onward  until  near  the 
4th  of  March,  Cameron  was  apparently,  if  not  actually, 
left  in  doubt  as  to  whether  he  would  be  called  to  the 
Cabinet  at  all.  Clay  could  not  become  Secretary  of 
War,  under  the  existing  complication,  without  setting 
aside  either  Chase  or  Cameron,  if  not  both,  and  was 
ultimately  tendered  a  foreign  mission  instead. 

Early  in  December,  at  an  interview  asked  by  the 
President-elect,  Judge  Bates  was  offered  the  place  of 
Attorney-General,  which  he  agreed  to  accept.  Three 
rival  candidates  for  the  Presidential  nomination  had 
been  chosen  as  heads  of  important  departments.  Was 
it  not  natural  that  Lincoln  should  wish  to  have  in  his 
council  at  least  one  of  the  active  supporters  of  his  own 
16 


242        LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

candidacy?  Norman  B.  Judd,  of  Chicago,  had  been 
an  efficient  organizer  and  worker  in  that  behalf,  and 
was  a  personal  friend  deemed  worthy  of  such  a  position. 
Caleb  B.  Smith,  of  Indiana,  had  also  rendered  valuable 
service  in  this  way;  had  been  Lincoln's  associate  at  the 
bar  for  many  years,  and  had  been  a  distinguished  Con- 
gressman, holding  during  Lincoln's  term  the  chair- 
manship of  the  Committee  on  Territories.  Influential 
friends  of  Mr.  Smith  visited  Springfield  to  press  his 
appointment  as  Secretary  of  the  Interior,  but  received 
no  positive  assurance  on  the  subject.  Some  attempts 
were  made  to  have  a  Cabinet  place  tendered  to  a  South- 
ern Unionist  like  John  Bell,  James  Guthrie,  or  John  A. 
Gilmer;  but  Lincoln  foresaw,  without  refusing  permis- 
sion to  Mr.  Speed  and  Mr.  Weed  to  satisfy  themselves 
in  their  own  way  as  proposed,  that  no  such  appointment 
would  be  accepted  on  any  possible  terms. 

On  the  22d  of  November,  Mr.  Hamlin  met  the  Pres- 
ident-elect by  appointment  at  Chicago.  This  was  their 
first  meeting  since  their  names  had  been  associated 
together  as  candidates,  and  probably  the  first  since  they 
served  together  in  Congress,  the  former  being  then  a 
Democratic  Senator,  yet  as  pronounced  as  Lincoln  in 
regard  to  slavery.  At  this  conference  there  was  an 
interchange  of  views  on  national  affairs,  and  Mr.  Ham- 
lin stated  privately  to  political  friends  in  Northern  Ohio, 
where  he  stopped  on  his  way  homeward,  that  there 
would  be  "  no  lowering  of  the  Republican  standard  " 
on  the  part  of  the  incoming  President.  This  was  a 
point  on  which  there  had  already  been  solicitude  in 
the    minds    of   some    stout    Republicans    like    Senator 


BIDING  HIS  TIME— TROUBLED  DAYS.    243 

Wade,  who  welcomed  this  assurance  at  a  moment  when 
so  many  supports  of  the  party  seemed  to  be  giving  way. 

For,  on  the  one  hand,  there  had  begun  to  be  talk 
of  "  peaceable  separation  " —  to  which  Mr.  Chase  was 
inclined  to  listen;  on  the  other,  of  a  surrender  of 
Republican  principles  and  even  of  the  party  name,  to 
organize  a  broad  Conservative  Union  party  on  a  basis 
acceptable  to  the  Southern  opponents  of  secession. 
Horace  Greeley,  in  the  New  York  Tribune,  as  early  as 
the  9th  of  November,  took  ground  for  unresisted  Dis- 
union; and  Thurlow  Weed,  in  the  Albany  Evening  Jour- 
nal, simultaneously  pronounced  for  a  substantial  surren- 
der in  order  to  conciliate  the  South.  The  Republican 
party  was  not  more  strongly  bound  to  redeem  its  pledge 
against  the  extension  of  slavery  than  its  promise  that 
"  the  Union  must  and  shall  be  preserved."  Would  the 
President-elect  be  faithful  to  his  own  and  his  party's 
promises  in  both  these  particulars?  This  was  the  ques- 
tion answered  by  Mr.  Hamlift. 

That  his  answer  was  correct  was  proved  three  weeks 
later  —  after  Congress  had  assembled  and  various 
"  pacification  "  measures  had  been  introduced  —  by  a 
confidential  letter  (December  13th)  to  Representative 
E.  B.  Washburne,  of  Illinois,  in  which  Lincoln  said: 
"  Prevent,  as  far  as  possible,  any  of  our  friends  from 
demoralizing  themselves  and  our  cause  by  entertaining 
propositions  for  compromise  of  any  sort  on  slavery  ex- 
tension. There  is  no  possible  compromise  upon  it  but 
which  puts  us  under  again,  and  leaves  us  all  our  work 
to  do  over  again.  .  .  .  On  that  point  hold  firm'  as 
with  a  chain  of  steel." 


244        LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

Congress  met  three  days  before  the  election  of  del- 
egates to  the  South  Carolina  Convention.  President 
Buchanan  in  his  annual  message  dwelt  sympathetically 
on  the  grievances  of  the  South,  but  argued  against 
secession  as  a  lawful  remedy,  or  as  any  remedy  at  all. 
In  place  of  the  conclusion  naturally  following,  there  was 
a  confession  of  inability  on  the  part  of  the  Government 
to  hinder  the  threatened  revolt.  The  practice  of  the 
administration  but  too  well  accorded  with  its  theory. 
The  days  of  Jackson  and  Livingston  were  gone  by. 

Buchanan  asked  no  legislation  to  strengthen  his 
arm  for  the  emergency.  Congress  volunteered  none, 
but  gave  itself  to  the  consideration  of  measures  to  pacify 
the  discontented  South.  Most  prominent  of  the  propo- 
sitions of  this  character  was  that  offered  by  Mr.  Crit- 
tenden, then  Senator  from  Kentucky  —  to  be  suc- 
ceeded by  Vice  President  Breckinridge  on  the  4th  of 
March,  and  to  have  a  seat  in  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives. That  part  of  the  President's  message  relating  to 
the  perils  of  the  nation  was  referred  in  the  Senate  to 
a  special  committee  of  thirteen,  and  in  the  House  to 
a  committee  of  thirty-three  —  one  from  each  State  — 
and  to  these  committees  were  respectively  sent  the 
various  resolutions  and  projects  on  the  subject  intro- 
duced in  either  body.  The  Senate  committee,  ap- 
pointed by  Breckinridge,  was  composed  of  seven  Dem- 
ocrats—  Messrs.  Powell,  of  Kentucky;  Hunter,  of  Vir- 
ginia; Toombs,  of  Georgia;  Douglas,  of  Illinois;  Davis, 
of  Mississippi;  Bigler,  of  Pennsylvania,  and  Rice,  of 
Minnesota;  one  Conservative  Unionist  —  Mr.  Critten- 
den, of  Kentucky;  and  five  Republicans  —  Messrs.  Sew- 
ard, of  New  York;  Collamer,  of  Vermont;  Wade,  of 


BIDING  HIS  TIME— TROUBLED  DAYS.    245 

Ohio;  Doolittle,  of  Wisconsin,  and  Grimes,  of  Iowa. 
To  the  House  committee  of  thirty-three,  Speaker  Pen- 
nington gave  as  conservative  a  cast  as  was  practicable, 
Mr.  Corwin,  of  Ohio,  being  its  chairman. 

The  "  Crittenden  compromise  "  included  six  articles 
of  amendment  to  the  Constitution,  making  concessions 
to  the  South  or  seeking  to  allay  Southern  apprehen- 
sions, and  four  joint  resolutions,  three  of  which  were 
designed  to  strengthen  the  fugitive  slave  law,  while 
the  fourth  favored  a  more  effectual  suppression  of 
the  African  slave-trade.  The  proposed  constitutional 
amendments  provided: 

(1)  That  in  all  territory  south  of  the  line  of  360  30' 
north  latitude  slavery  should  be  authorized  and  protected, 
and  north  of  that  line  prohibited ;  (2)  that  Congress  should 
have  no  power  to  abolish  slavery  in  places  under  its  ex- 
clusive jurisdiction  within  the  limits  of  slave-holding  States ; 

(3)  or  to  abolish  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  so  long 
as  existent  in  Virginia  and  Maryland,  or  either  of  them ; 

(4)  or  to  prohibit  or  hinder  the  transportation  of  slaves  from 
one  State  to  another;  (5)  that  Congress  should  have  power 
to  provide  payment  for  fugitive  slaves  escaping  after  arrest ; 
and  (6)  that  no  future  amendment  should  affect  the  five 
preceding  articles,  or  Paragraph  3  of  Section  2  of  Article  I. 
(relating  to  the  basis  of  representation  and  taxation),  or 
Paragraph  3  of  Section  2  of  Article  IV.  (relating  to  fugi- 
tive slaves)  ;  nor  should  any  amendment  be  made  giving 
Congress  any  power  to  abolish  or  interfere  with  slavery  in 
any  of  the  States  by  whose  laws  it  is,  or  may  be,  allowed 
or  permitted. 

These  proposals  involved  too  positive  a  Republi- 
can surrender  to  find  favor  on  that  side  in  the  Senate 
committee  of  thirteen.  Messrs.  Davis,  Toombs  and 
Hunter  pleaded  the  lack  of  such  support  as  a  sufficient 
reason  for  withholding  their  votes,  which,  if  cast  with 


246       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

those  of  Messrs.  Crittenden,  Powell,  Douglas,  Bigler 
and  Rice,  would  have  secured  a  report  for  the  measure. 
No  other  proposition  had  better  success,  and  before  the 
holidays  were  over  this  committee  had  definitely  aban- 
doned its  hopeless  task.  The  "  Crittenden  compro- 
mise," however,  remained  before  the  Senate  as  an  indi- 
vidual measure  of  its  mover;  was  in  its  substance  con- 
sidered and  rejected  by  the  House  committee  of  thirty- 
three,  and  otherwise  maintained  an  apparent  though 
shadowy  existence  during  the  remainder  of  the  session. 

The  South  Carolina  Convention  passed  an  "  ordi- 
nance of  secession "  on  the  20th  of  December.  At 
Charleston,  whither  the  Convention  had  removed  from 
the  State  capital,  the  populace  went  wild  with  delight, 
lighting  up  the  city  and  parading  with  noisy  demon- 
strations. There  were  rejoicings  through  all  the  Cot- 
ton country,  with  congratulations  to  the  bold  Caro- 
linians; nor  were  like  expressions  wanting  nearer  the 
border.  Other  Gulf  States  had  already  taken  formal 
steps  toward  a  like  consummation.  "  Minute  men " 
from  Georgia  were  tendering  military  service  to  Gov- 
ernor Pickens,  of  South  Carolina,  who  was  putting  on 
the  front  of  active  war.  With  a  grim  humor  highly 
appreciated  at  home,  the  Charleston  press  had  its  "  For- 
eign "  columns  for  news  from  the  other  States.  Special 
encouragement,  too,  was  given  to  the  secession  cause 
by  the  open  sympathy  of  a  number  of  Democratic  jour- 
nals and  politicians  at  the  North  —  a  kind  of  help  esti- 
mated at  higher  value  than  a  cooler  judgment  would 
have  justified. 

Sensitive  capitalists  and  traders  in  the  large  cities 
began  to  shake  with  foreboding;  there  was  clamor  for 


BIDING  HIS  TIME— TROUBLED  DAYS.    247 

peace,  for  compromise;  facile  politicians,  to  stimulate 
reaction,  excitedly  declaimed  to  Northern  city  audi- 
ences on  the  calamities  impending  over  every  business 
interest,  to  be  averted  only  by  conciliating  the  South. 
Opponents  of  Republican  opinions  were  neither  tardy 
nor  sparing  in  their  endeavors  to  turn  the  state  of 
affairs  to  partisan  account. 

Douglas,  who  had  taken  the  lead  in  annulling  the 
Missouri  line,  was  now  a  champion  of  its  restoration 
through  the  Crittenden  compromise.  Senator  Pugh, 
of  Ohio,  his  close  political  friend,  who  at  Charleston 
only  a  few  months  before  had  spoken  boldly  against 
the  demand  for  the  protection  of  slavery  in  the  Terri- 
tories, followed  his  leader  in  consenting  to  such  protec- 
tion south  of  the  line  of  360  30',  with  all  the  possibilities 
of  future  acquisition.  On  the  last  day  of  December, 
Mr.  Pugh  —  at  home  for  the  holidays  —  addressed  a 
public  meeting  at  Cincinnati  in  advocacy  of  this  com- 
promise. After  expressing  the  sanguine  hopes  he  had 
indulged  of  pacification  thereby,  he  continued: 

But  I  am  sorry  to  say  that  within  the  last  week  before  I 
left  Washington  all  this  has  changed.  I  must  be  permitted 
to  say  that  the  immediate  cause  of  this  change  was  the  dec- 
laration in  the  New  York  Tribune  purporting  to  be  made 
on  the  authority  of  the  President-elect,  that  he  would  not 
yield  a  single  hair's  breadth  of  the  position  which,  as  he 
understood,  his  party  had  taken  in  the  last  canvass.  .  .  . 
But  it  is  remarkable  that,  although  Mr.  Lincoln  has  declared 
it  beneath  his  dignity  to  give  any  assurance  that  would  quiet 
the  alarm  of  the  people  of  the  Southern  States  since  his  elec- 
tion, he  has  not  thought  it  beneath  his  dignity  to  authorize 
a  declaration  to  be  made  which  brings  to  bear  on  the  more 
moderate  men  of  his  party  in  Congress  the  whole  power  and 
influence  of  his  incoming  administration.  I  think  it  was 
an  error. 


248       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

The  Senator  was  not  sufficiently  candid  either  in 
his  statement  or  in  his  criticism.  The  demand  for  a 
public  manifesto  from  Lincoln,  often  heard  in  hostile 
quarters  at  this  time,  was  not  a  reasonable  one.  While 
another  held  the  chief  executive  office,  it  was  not  fit- 
ting for  the  elected  successor  thus  to  assume  any  of 
its  duties  by  anticipation.  Nor  could  there  be  any 
"  assurance  "  that  had  not  already  been  repeatedly  and 
plainly  given  in  the  proper  way  —  the  same  which  had 
been  privately  uttered  to  Mr.  Stephens,  of  Georgia,  a 
few  days  before  this  speech  of  Mr.  Pugh.  On  the  14th 
of  November,  Mr.  Stephens  spoke  at  Milledgeville, 
where  the  Legislature  was  sitting,  using  even  more  than 
his  wonted  vigor  and  eloquence  in  opposition  to  seces- 
sion. His  speech  was  much  applauded  at  the  North, 
where  his  sincerity  was  not  doubted,  and  where  some 
had  faith  that  his  stability  would  be  heroic.  Of  Lin- 
coln's election  to  the  Presidency,  Stephens  was  reported 
as  saying: 

In  my  judgment,  the  election  of  no  man  constitutionally 
chosen  to  that  office  is  sufficient  cause  for  any  State  to  sep- 
arate from  the  Union.  .  .  .  We  went  into  the  election  with 
this  people ;  the  result  was  different  from  what  we  wished ; 
but  the  election  has  been  constitutionally  held.  Were  we 
to  make  a  point  of  resistance  to  the  Government,  and  go  out 
of  the  Union  on  that  account,  the  record  would  be  made  up 
hereafter  against  us.  But,  it  is  said,  Mr.  Lincoln's  policy 
and  principles  are  against  the  Constitution,  and  that,  if  he 
carries  them  out,  it  will  be  destruction  of  our  rights.  Let 
us  not  anticipate  a  threatened  evil.  ...  I  do  not  anticipate 
that  Mr.  Lincoln  will  do  anything  to  jeopardize  our  safety  or 
security,  whatever  may  be  his  spirit  to  do  it ;  for  he  is  bound 
by  the  constitutional  checks  which  are  thrown  around  him, 
which,  at  this  time,  render  him  powerless  to  do  any  mischief. 


BIDING  HIS  TIME— TROUBLED  DAYS.    249 

Seeing  a  newspaper  report  of  this  speech,  rebuking 
the  attempt  to  "  break  up  the  best  government  upon 
earth,"  Lincoln  wrote  his  old  friend  a  brief  note  on 
the  30th  of  November,  asking  an  authentic  copy  of  the 
speech,  but  making  no  comment.  When  Stephens 
replied  he  was  already  overborne,  if  he  had  not  actually 
drifted  far  to  sea  "  with  his  State."  On  the  226.  of 
December,  Lincoln  —  prefixing  to  his  response,  "  For 
your  own  eye  only" — wrote  in  turn: 

I  fully  appreciate  the  present  peril  the  country  is  in,  and 
the  weight  of  responsibility  on  me. 

Do  the  people  of  the  South  really  entertain  fears  that  a 
Republican  administration  would  directly,  or  indirectly,  in- 
terfere with  the  slaves,  or  bother  them  about  their  slaves? 
If  they  do,  I  wish  to  assure  you  as  once  a  friend,  and  still, 
I  hope,  not  any  [wise]  an  enemy,  that  there  is  no  cause  for 
such  fears. 

The  South  would  be  in  no  worse  danger  in  this  respect 
than  it  was  in  the  days  of  Washington.  I  suppose,  however, 
this  does  not  meet  the  case.  You  think  slavery  is  right,  and 
ought  to  be  extended,  while  we  think  it  is  wrong,  and  ought 
to  be  restricted.  That,  I  suppose,  is  the  rub.  It  certainly 
is  the  only  substantial  difference  between  us.* 

Their  next  communication  was  in  person,  four  years 
later,  on  a  steamer  in  Hampton  Roads. 


*  Published  by  Mr.  Stephens  after  the  war. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

1860-1861. 

Embarrassments   of  President   Buchanan  —  Major   Robert 

Anderson   "Saves   the   Country"  —  Fort   Sumter  — 

Plans  for  Pacification  —  "  Confederate  States." 

Before  the  close  of  the  year  there  were  significant 
events  in  Charleston  harbor. 

President  Buchanan  in  his  recent  message,  following 
the  opinion  given  by  Attorney-General  Black,  to  the 
effect  that  he  was  powerless  to  put  down  an  insurrection 
involving  the  people  of  an  entire  State,  though  he  might 
suppress  a  smaller  outbreak,  hardly  meant,  after  all,  to 
proclaim  such  an  utter  helplessness  in  the  pending  dis- 
turbances as  was  generally  inferred.  Even  the  very 
conservative  Attorney-General  found  it  necessary  to 
draw  the  line  somewhere,  and  considerably  inside  of  so 
extreme  a  limit,  for  he  had  said  in  the  legal  opinion 
already  mentioned:  "The  right  of  the  Government  to 
preserve  itself  in  its  whole  constitutional  vigor,  by 
repelling  a  direct  and  positive  aggression  upon  its 
property  or  its  officers,  can  not  be  denied." 

Military  works  had  been  erected  in  Charleston  har- 
bor as  part  of  the  system  of  national  coast  defenses.  In 
one  of  these,  Fort  Moultrie,  there  was  a  small  garrison, 
numbering  less  than  one  hundred  men,  under  the  com- 

(250) 


PRESIDENT  BUCHANAN'S  TROUBLES.    251 

mand  of  Major  Robert  Anderson.  Another,  Fort  Sum- 
ter, was  a  costly  structure,  of  much  greater  strength  and 
importance,  erected  in  the  midst  of  the  waters,  and  only 
lately  brought  to  such  a  degree  of  completion  as  to 
make  its  occupation  by  a  garrison  practicable.  It  was 
well  known  that  the  authorities  of  South  Carolina  meant 
to  insist  on  possession  of  these  and  the  minor  works  — ■ 
"  within  its  jurisdiction,"  as  they  alleged,  though  in  fact 
exclusive  jurisdiction  over  their  site  had  been  ceded  by 
South  Carolina  to  the  United  States.  While  eagerly 
pushing  forward  the  work  of  arming  the  State,  and  mus- 
tering into  its  service  volunteer  companies  from  other 
States,  the  new  Governor,  Mr.  Pickens,  proposed  to 
enter  into  negotiations  with  President  Buchanan,  as  the 
Federal  "  agent  "  of  the  other  States,  for  a  pacific  sur- 
render of  the  forts  to  the  Palmetto  principality.  The 
Governor's  commissioners,  Messrs.  Barnwell,  Orr,  and 
Adams,  reached  Washington  on  this  errand  a  day  or 
two  after  Christmas. 

While  they  were  on  their  way,  Major  Anderson, 
whom  they  had  left  quietly  holding  Fort  Moultrie, 
startled  the  insurgent  authorities  and  electrified  the 
country  by  a  nocturnal  transfer  of  his  little  military 
force  to  Fort  Sumter,  then  supposed  to  be  impreg- 
nable. The  demonstrations  of  public  feeling  at  the 
North  when  this  news  was  received  left  no  doubt  as 
to  the  sentiments  of  the  people  about  the  whole  busi- 
ness of  secession.  After  that  there  was  little  talk  of 
"  peaceable  "  disunion. 

The  South  Carolina  commissioners  sent  to  the  Pres- 
ident a  communication,  in  which,  after  serving  on  him 
a  copy  of  the  ordinance  of  secession,  and  without  wait- 


252        LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

ing  to  learn  what  reception  would  be  given  to  their  cre- 
dentials, they  proceeded  to  accuse  the  Administration  of 
violating  its  pledges  in  the  matter  of  Major  Anderson's 
dismantling  Fort  Moultrie  and  occupying  Fort  Sumter. 
They  asked  an  explanation  from  Mr.  Buchanan,  who  — 
at  first  timid,  but  braced  up  by  Mr.  Black  —  replied  to 
these  gentlemen  as  citizens  merely,  distinctly  repudi- 
ating their  assumption  of  an  official  character,  and  re- 
pelling their  allegations  of  bad  faith  as  to  the  forts. 
Neither  did  he  make  any  disclaimer  of  Major  Ander- 
son's acts.  This  brought  a  rejoinder  so  wanting  in 
courtesy  that  the  President  declined  to  receive  it,  and 
the  commissioners  departed. 

There  had  already  been  a  "crisis"  in  Mr.  Buchanan's 
administration.  On  the  ioth  of  December  Howell  Cobb 
had  resigned  his  place  as  Secretary  of  the  Treasury, 
alleging  as  a  reason  "  his  duty  to  his  State  "  ;  and  on 
the  14th  Lewis  Cass  had  retired  from  the  State  Depart- 
ment, because  the  garrison  in  Charleston  harbor  was 
not  strengthened.  Mr.  Cobb's  place  had  been  filled 
by  the  appointment  of  Philip  F.  Thomas,  of  Maryland; 
and  Edwin  M.  Stanton  became  Attorney-General,  on 
the  promotion  of  Mr.  Black  to  the  office  of  Secretary 
of  State.  The  affair  with  the  South  Carolina  commis- 
sioners was  not  over,  when  Secretary  Floyd,  of  the  War 
Department,  was  found  to  be  implicated  in  the  robbery 
of  an  Indian  trust  fund,  and  Mr.  Floyd's  resignation, 
distinctly  on  that  account,  was  demanded  by  the  Presi- 
dent. This  was  tendered  on  the  29th  of  December,  in 
a  letter  which  implied  for  the  public  eye  that  the  War 
Secretary  had  voluntarily  retired  because  faith  had  not 
been  kept  in  regard  to  the  Charleston  forts.     Joseph 


PRESIDENT  BUCHANAN'S  TROUBLES.    253 

Holt,  of  Kentucky,  Postmaster-General,  was  thereupon 
transferred  to  the  Secretaryship  of  War,  and  Horatio 
King,  Assistant  Postmaster-General,  succeeded  Mr. 
Holt.  On  the  30th  of  December  the  President  ordered 
reinforcements  to  be  sent  to  Major  Anderson  —  a  meas- 
ure agreed  upon  in  Cabinet,  with  the  approval  of  all 
except  Secretaries  Thomas  and  Thompson,  both  of 
whom  soon  after  resigned.  General  John  A.  Dix,  of 
New  York,  succeeded  Thomas  in  the  Treasury  Depart- 
ment, and  Thompson's  chief  clerk,  Moses  Kelly,  was 
Acting  Secretary  of  the  Interior  for  the  remainder  of 
the  term.  Buchanan's  Cabinet  henceforward  was  more 
harmonious,  but  its  efficiency  chiefly  negative. 

Secretary  Black  said  very  plainly  in  his  official  advice 
to  the  President: 

The  forts  in  Charleston  harbor  belong  to  this  Govern- 
ment —  are  its  own  and  can  not  be  given  up.  It  is  true 
they  might  be  surrendered  to  a  superior  force,  whether  that 
force  be  in  the  service  of  a  seceding  State  or  a  foreign  na- 
tion. But  Fort  Sumter  is  impregnable  and  can  not  be  taken 
if  defended  as  it  should  be.  It  is  a  thing  of  the  last  impor- 
tance that  it  should  be  maintained  if  all  the  power  of  this 
nation  can  do  it ;  for  the  command  of  the  harbor  and  the 
President's  ability  to  execute  the  revenue  laws  may  depend 
on  it.  .  .  .  The  power  to  defend  the  public  property,  to 
resist  an  assailing  force  which  unlawfully  attempts  to  drive 
out  troops  of  the  United  States  from  one  of  the  fortifications, 
and  to  use  military  and  naval  forces  for  the  purpose  of  aiding 
the  proper  officers  of  the  United  States  in  the  execution  of 
the  laws  —  this,  as  far  as  it  goes,  is  coercion,  and  may  very 
well  be  called  "  coercing  a  State  by  force  of  arms  to  remain 
in  the  Union."  The  President  has  always  asserted  his  right 
of  coercion  to  that  extent.  He  merely  denies  the  right  of 
Congress  to  make  offensive  war  upon  a  State  of  the  Union 
as  such  might  be  made  upon  a  foreign  government. 


254       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

The  following  words  of  Mr.  Black,  from  the  same 
document,  especially  deserve  attention: 

The  remotest  expression  of  a  doubt  about  Major  Ander- 
son's perfect  propriety  of  behavior  should  be  carefully 
avoided.  He  is  not  merely  a  gallant  and  meritorious  officer 
who  is  entitled  to  a  fair  hearing  before  he  is  condemned. 
He  has  saved  the  country,  I  solemnly  believe,  when  its  day 
was  darkest,  and  its  perils  most  extreme.  He  has  done 
everything  that  mortal  man  could  do  to  repair  the  fatal  error 
which  the  administration  has  committed  in  not  sending  down 
troops  enough  to  hold  all  the  forts.  He  has  kept  the  strong- 
est one.  He  still  commands  the  harbor.  We  may  still  exe- 
cute the  laws  if  we  try. 

He  concludes  by  entreating  the  President  to  "  order 
the  Brooklyn  and  the  Macedonian  to  Charleston  without 
the  least  delay,  and  in  the  meantime  to  send  a  trusty 
messenger  to  Major  Anderson,  to  let  him  know  that 
his  government  will  not  desert  him.  The  reinforce- 
ment of  troops  should  follow  immediately.  If  this  be 
done  at  once,  all  may  yet  be  not  well,  but  comparatively 
safe.  If  not,  I  can  see  nothing  but  disaster  and  ruin  to 
the  country." 

The  President  ordered  the  reinforcements,  but  there 
was  a  mortifying  failure,  for  which  Mr.  Black  chiefly 
blamed  General  Scott.  Others  thought  the  responsi- 
bility should  be  borne  in  part  by  Mr.  Seward,  who,  as 
prospective  Secretary  of  State,  was  becoming  promi- 
nent in  the  councils  and  schemes  of  the  time.  What- 
ever the  influence  of  either  Scott  or  Seward,  the  chief 
burden  rested  on  Buchanan.  Weeks  before  the  elec- 
tion the  General  had  warned  the  President  of  the  dan- 
gers from  an  inadequate  manning  of  the  Southern  forts, 
specifying  Jackson  and  St.  Philip,  below  New  Orleans, 


PRESIDENT  BUCHANAN'S  TROUBLES.    255 

then  without  any  garrison;  McRea  and  Pickens,  in  Pen- 
sacola  harbor,  insufficiently  garrisoned;  Pulaski,  near 
Savannah,  without  a  garrison;  Moultrie  and  Sumter,  in 
Charleston  harbor,  the  former  with  only  eighty  men,  the 
latter  unoccupied;  and  Fortress  Monroe,  at  Old  Point 
Comfort,  insufficiently  garrisoned.  His  recommenda- 
tion that  prompt  measures  be  taken  for  the  security 
of  these  important  national  works  was  neglected  — 
"  fatally  "  neglected,  as  Secretary  Black  told  the  Presi- 
dent in  December. 

With  little  delay  after  the  executive  order  was  given, 
an  unarmed  steamer,  the  Star  of  the  West, —  not  the  two 
war  steamers  which  the  Secretary  of  State  had  pro- 
posed —  started  from  New  York  with  reinforcements 
for  Major  Anderson.  To  the  public,  Charleston  har- 
bor was  now  the  chief  point  of  interest;  for  what 
availed  peace  meetings  or  compromise  projects  if  the 
insurgents  already  in  arms  were  bent  on  fighting?  Did 
South  Carolina  actually  mean  to  inaugurate  civil  war? 
That  question  was  answered  when,  on  the  9th  of  Jan- 
uary, her  guns  fired  on  the  Star  of  the  West  as,  with  the 
United  States  flag  at  her  mast,  she  entered  the  harbor 
at  Charleston.  Meeting  this  reception,  she  wheeled 
about  and  returned  to  New  York.  So  slight  an  effort 
had  certainly  not  exhausted  the  energy  of  the  admin- 
istration; and  Mr.  Buchanan  promptly  sent  a  special 
message  to  Congress  so  improved  in  tone  as  to  raise 
expectations  of  a  more  positive  treatment  of  the  case 
thereafter;  but  during  the  remaining  eight  weeks  of  his 
term  nothing  was  done  to  satisfy  the  hope. 

On  the  day  before  this  humiliating  spectacle  in 
Charleston  harbor,  Senator  Jefferson  Davis  wrote  (Jan- 


256        LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

uary  8,  1861)  to  a  close  personal  and  political  friend, 
then  abroad,  Edwin  De  Leon,  Consul  at  Alexandria: 

We  are  advancing  rapidly  to  the  end  of  "  the  Union." 
The  Cotton  States  may  now  be  regarded  as  having  decided 
for  secession.  South  Carolina  is  in  a  quasi  war,  and  the 
probabilities  are  that  events  will  hasten  her  and  her  associates 
into  general  conflict  with  the  forces  of  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment. The  Black  Republicans,  exultant  over  their  recent 
success,  are  not  disposed  to  concede  anything ;  and  the  stern 
necessity  of  resistance  is  forcing  itself  upon  the  judgment  of 
all  the  slave-holding  States.  The  Virginia  Legislature  met 
yesterday,  and  took  promptly  and  boldly  the  Southern 
ground.  Mississippi  is  now  in  convention.  I  may  leave 
here  in  a  few  days ;  though  it  is  also  possible  the  State  may 
choose  to  continue  its  Senators  here  for  the  purpose  of  de- 
fense against  hostile  legislation.  The  confidence  heretofore 
felt  in  Mr.  Buchanan  has  diminished  steadily,  and  is  now 
nearly  extinct.  His  weakness  has  done  as  much  harm  as 
wickedness  would  have  achieved.  Though  I  can  no  longer 
respect  or  confer  with  him,  and  feel  injured  by  his  conduct, 
yet  I  pity  and  would  extenuate  the  offenses  not  prompted  by 
bad  design  or  malignant  intent. 

All  the  Cotton  States  were  indeed  rapidly  falling 
into  line  with  the  State  already  "  in  a  quasi  war,"  with 
the  recognized  probabilities  of  a  "  general  conflict  with 
the  forces  of  the  Federal  Government."  Some  of  these 
States  did  not  wait  for  even  the  formality  of  a  Secession 
ordinance  before  beginning  to  appropriate  Federal 
property  —  forts,  arsenals,  arms,  munitions  of  war,  pub- 
lic buildings,  mints,  and  money.  Mr.  Davis's  own 
State  passed  its  ordinance  of  secession  on  the  day  after 
he  had  written  as  above  —  the  day  which  Governor 
Pickens  celebrated  by  firing  on  the  Star  of  the  West. 
He  had  previously  taken  possession  of  all  Federal  prop- 
erty at  Charleston,  and  of  all  the  Federal  defenses  of 


CONFEDERACY  OF  "SIX  NATIONS."     257 

its  harbor,  save  only  Fort  Sumter.  Two  days  later, 
Alabama  and  Florida  followed  suit;  and  before  the  close 
of  the  month,  Georgia,  Louisiana  and  Texas.  Without 
resistance,  every  coast  fortification  within  the  limits  of 
the  seceding  seven  States,  save  the  works  at  Key  West, 
Fort  Pickens  and  Fort  Sumter,  were  wrested  from  the 
Government's  possession. 

The  Legislature  of  Virginia  provided  for  a  State 
convention  to  act  on  the  question  of  secession,  and 
resolved  (January  19th)  that  all  the  other  States  be 
invited  to  send  commissioners  to  meet  representatives 
of  like  sort  from  Virginia  at  Washington  on  the  4th 
of  February,  for  "  an  earnest  effort  to  adjust  the  present 
unhappy  controversies."  The  basis  indicated  for  such 
settlement  was  the  "  Crittenden  Compromise."  An- 
other resolution  designated  Ex-President  John  Tyler 
as  a  "  commissioner  to  the  President  of  the  United 
States,"  and  Judge  John  Robertson  as  a  commissioner 
to  South  Carolina  and  "  the  other  States  that  have 
seceded  or  shall  secede,"  with  instructions  respectfully 
to  request  the  President  and  the  authorities  of  such 
States  "  to  abstain,"  while  the  action  proposed  for  the 
Peace  Conference  was  pending,  "  from  any  and  all  acts 
calculated  to  produce  a  collision  of  arms  between  the 
States  and  the  Government  of  the  United  States." 

In  the  Peace  Conference  thus  initiated  —  which 
was  in  session  at  Washington  from  the  4th  to  the  27th 
of  February  —  there  were  delegates,  including  many 
eminent  men,  from  all  the  New  England  States,  New 
York,  New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  Ohio,  and  several 
States  further  west,  as  well  as  from  nearly  all  the  South- 
ern States  except  those  engaged,  at  the  same  date,  in 
17 


258       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

confederating  at  Montgomery.  This  gathering  of 
notables  at  Washington,  however,  did  not  answer  the 
expectations  of  those  —  if  any  there  really  were  —  who 
looked  to  it  for  a  settlement  of  "  the  present  unhappy 
controversies." 

Mr.  Buchanan,  hardly  needing  the  pacific  persua- 
sions of  his  predecessor,  "  Commissioner  "  Tyler,  soon 
settled  down  to  the  policy  of  leaving  matters  to  take 
their  course  until  dealt  with  by  the  incoming  admin- 
istration. This  gratified  the  Virginia  pacificators,  and 
at  least  satisfied  Mr.  Seward.  On  the  12th  of  January, 
Seward  had  delivered  a  speech  in  the  Senate,  moderate 
and  yielding  in  tone  —  proposing  "  to  meet  exaction 
with  conciliation,  and  violence  with  peace;"  consenting 
to  an  amendment  of  the  Constitution  forever  prohibit- 
ing Congress  from  any  interference  with  slavery  in 
the  States;  and  favoring  a  national  convention  to  con- 
sider further  changes  in  that  instrument.  He  expressly 
repudiated  the  "  irrepressible  conflict "  doctrine  as  it 
had  been  attributed  to  him,  and  favored  the  plan  lately 
proposed  by  Mr.  Charles  Francis  Adams  in  the  House 
to  organize  the  remaining  Territories  without  mention 
of  slavery.  Before  the  end  of  January  the  Territories 
of  Colorado,  Nevada  and  Dakota  were  thus  organized, 
and  Kansas  was  admitted  into  the  Union  as  a  free  State. 
For  a  time  the  secession  frenzy  seemed  to  have  reached 
a  limit.  Although  the  Legislature  of  Virginia  had 
called  a  State  convention,  a  majority  of  Union  del- 
egates was  chosen.  In  North  Carolina,  Kentucky, 
Tennessee,  Missouri,  and  even  in  the  Cotton  State  of 
Arkansas,  the  people  voted  down  secession.  In  Mary- 
land and  Delaware,  disunion  emissaries  met  a  chilling 


CONFEDERACY  OF  "SIX  NATIONS."     259 

reception,  and  neither  State  was  disturbed  by  a  direct 
popular  vote  on  the  question. 

A  Congress  of  representatives  of  the  six  States  first 
launched  into  the  fatal  current  —  the  Texas  ordinance 
not  being  yet  in  operation  —  was  organized  at  Mont- 
gomery, Ala.,  on  the  4th  of  February,  and  agreed  on  a 
provisional  constitution  for  a  Southern  confederacy.  A 
provisional  government  was  decreed,  with  Jefferson 
Davis  as  President,  and  Alexander  H.  Stephens  as  Vice 
President.  Some  facetious  State-rightists  styled  Davis 
"  Chief  of  the  Six  Nations."  His  inauguration  took 
place  on  the  18th  of  February. 


CHAPTER  XX. 

On  the  Way  to  the  White  House. 

On  Monday  morning,  February  nth,  the  last  day 
of  his  fifty-second  year,  Abraham  Lincoln  began  his 
journey  to  Washington.  The  air  was  chilly  and  the 
sky  dark  with  clouds  as  his  neighbors  gathered  at  the 
railway  station  to  bid  him  and  his  family  farewell.  His 
few  parting  words  were  spoken  with  visible  emotion: 

My  Friends:  One  who  has  never  been  placed  in  a  like 
position  can  not  understand  my  feelings  at  this  hour,  nor 
the  oppressive  sadness  I  feel  at  this  parting.  For  more  than 
twenty-five  years  I  have  lived  among  you,  and  during  all  that 
time  I  have  received  nothing  but  kindness  at  your  hands. 
Here  the  most  cherished  ties  of  earth  were  assumed.  Here 
my  children  were  born,  and  here  one  of  them  lies  buried. 
To  you,  my  friends,  I  owe  all  that  I  have  —  all  that  I  am. 
All  the  strange  checkered  past  seems  to  crowd  upon  my 
mind.  To-day  I  leave  you.  I  go  to  assume  a  task  more 
difficult  than  that  which  devolved  upon  General  Washington. 
Unless  the  great  God  who  assisted  him  shall  be  with  and  aid 
me  I  can  not  prevail;  but  if  the  same  almighty  arm  that 
directed  and  protected  him  shall  guide  and  support  me  I 
shall  not  fail ;  I  shall  succeed.  Let  us  pray  that  the  God  of 
our  fathers  may  not  forsake  us  now.  To  Him  I  commend 
you  all.  Permit  me  to  ask  that  with  equal  sincerity  and 
faith  you  will  all  invoke  His  wisdom  and  goodness  for  me. 

With  these  words  I  must  leave  you ;  for  how  long  I  know 
not.  Friends,  one  and  all,  I  must  now  wish  you  an  affec- 
tionate farewell. 

This  was  his  exact  language  as  taken  down  at  the 
moment  and  telegraphed  through  the   land.     No  at- 

(260) 


ON  THE  WAY  TO  WASHINGTON.      261 

tempted  rhetorical  improvements   have  added  to   the 
force  of  its  simple  eloquence.* 

The  President-elect  was  accompanied  by  his  wife 
and  their  three  sons;  Dr.  Wallace,  his  brother-in-law; 
Governor  Yates,  Judge  David  Davis,  Mr.  Judd,  Mr. 
Browning;  Colonel  Edwin  V.  Sumner  and  Major  David 
Hunter,  of  the  regular  army;  Colonel  Ward  H.  Eamon, 
of  the  Governor's  staff,  and  several  others.  His  itin- 
erary included  the  cities  of  Indianapolis,  Cincinnati, 
Columbus,  Pittsburg,  Cleveland,  Buffalo,  Albany,  New 
York,  Trenton,  Philadelphia  and  Harrisburg,  occupy- 
ing twelve  days.  His  first  regular  speech  on  the  jour- 
ney was  made  at  Indianapolis,  where  he  said  on  the 
evening  of  the  nth: 

Fellow  Citizens  of  the  State  of  Indiana:  I  am  here  to 
thank  you  for  this  magnificent  welcome,  and  still  more  for 
the  very  generous  support  given  by  your  State  to  that  polit- 
ical cause,  which,  I  think,  is  the  true  and  just  cause  of  the 
whole  country,  and  the  whole  world.  Solomon  says,  "  There 
is  a  time  to  keep  silence ;"  and  when  men  wrangle  by  the 
mouth,  with  no  certainty  that  they  mean  the  same  thing  while 
using  the  same  words,  it  perhaps  were  as  well  if  they  would 
keep  silence. 

The  words  "  coercion  "  and  "  invasion  "  are  much  used 
in  these  days,  and  often  with  some  temper  and  hot  blood. 
Let  us  make  sure,  if  we  can,  that  we  do  not  misunderstand 


*  There  have  been  not  less  than  a  score  of  variant  versions  of 
this  brief  speech,  with  which  unreasonable  liberties  were  taken. 
Undoubtedly  some  of  its  phrases  would  have  been  different  had 
he  spoken  less  extemporaneously;  but  he  would  certainly  not  have 
omitted  the  name  of  God,  used  twice  in  the  verbatim  report,  or 
the  following  sentence:  "  Here  the  most  cherished  ties  of  earth 
were  assumed."  Yet  these  two  omissions  occur  in  some  other 
versions — including  that  "  written  down  immediately  after  the  train 
started,"  by  Private  Secretary  Nicolay. 


262       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

the  meaning  of  those  who  use  them.  Let  us  get  the  exact: 
definitions  of  these  words,  not  from  dictionaries,  but  from 
the  men  themselves,  who  certainly  deprecate  the  things  they 
would  represent  by  the  use  of  the  words. 

What,  then,  is  coercion?  What  is  invasion?  Would 
the  marching  or  an  army  into  South  Carolina,  without  the 
consent  of  her  people,  and  with  hostile  intent  toward  them, 
'be  invasion?  I  certainly  think  it  would,  and  it  would  be 
coercion  also,  if  the  South  Carolinians  were  forced  to  sub- 
mit. But  if  the  United  States  should  merely  hold  and  retake 
its  own  forts  and  other  property,  and  collect  the  duties  on 
foreign  importations,  or  even  withhold  the  mails  from  places 
where  they  were  habitually  violated,  would  any  or  all  of 
these  things  be  invasion  or  coercion?  Do  our  professed 
lovers  of  the  Union,  who  spitefully  resolve  that  they  will 
resist  coercion  and  invasion,  understand  that  such  things 
as  these,  on  the  part  of  the  United  States,  would  be  coercion 
or  invasion  of  a  State?  If  so,  their  idea  of  means  to  pre- 
serve the  object  of  their  great  affection  would  seem  to  be 
exceedingly  thin  and  airy.  If  sick,  the  little  pills  of  the 
homeopathist  would  be  much  too  large  for  it  to  swallow. 
In  their  view,  the  Union,  as  a  family  relation,  would  seem 
to  be  no  regular  marriage,  but  rather  a  sort  of  "  free-love  " 
arrangement,  to  be  maintained  on  passional  attraction. 

By  the  way,  in  what  consists  the  special  sacredness  of 
a  State?  I  speak  not  of  the  position  assigned  to  a  State 
in  the  Union  by  the  Constitution,  for  that  is  a  bond  we  all 
recognize.  That  position,  however,  a  State  can  not  carry 
out  of  the  Union  with  it.  I  speak  of  that  assumed  primary 
right  of  a  State  to  rule  all  which  is  less  than  itself,  and  to 
ruin  all  which  is  larger  than  itself.  If  a  State  and  a  county, 
in  a  given  case,  should  be  equal  in  number  of  inhabitants, 
in  what,  as  a  matter  of  principle,  is  the  State  better  than 
the  county?  Would  an  exchange  of  name  be  an  exchange 
of  rights?  Upon  what  principle,  upon  what  rightful  prin- 
ciple, may  a  State,  being  no  more  than  one-fiftieth  part  of 
the  nation  in  soil  and  population,  break  up  the  nation,  and 
then  coerce  a  proportionally  large  subdivision  of  itself  in  the 
most  arbitrary  way?  What  mysterious  right  to  play  tyrant 
is  conferred  on  a  district  of  country  with  its  people,  by 
merely  calling  it  a  State?    Fellow-citizens,  I  am  not  assert- 


ON  THE  WAY  TO  WASHINGTON.      263 

ing  anything'.     I   am  merely  asking  questions   for   you  to 
consider.     And  now  allow  me  to  bid  you  farewell. 

These  words,  carefully  prepared  because  anxiously 
awaited  by  the  country  —  in  some  quarters  captiously 
—  contain  nearly  all  that  need  now  be  recalled  of  his 
several  addresses  before  reaching  the  city  of  New  York. 
Everywhere,  by  the  proper  civic  authorities  and  by  the 
people  of  every  party,  he  was  received  with  all  the 
honors  and  more  than  the  usual  demonstrations  ac- 
corded to  a  Presidential  guest.  Arriving  at  the  railway 
station  in  Cincinnati  before  dark,  he  said:  "  I  thought 
in  Indianapolis  I  had  never  seen  so  large  a  crowd  in 
winter  weather.  I  am  no  longer  able  to  say  that."  He 
was  in  a  melancholy  mood  when  he  said  later  in  his 
main  speech  (on  his  birthday) :  "  In  a  few  short  years 
I  and  every  other  individual  man  who  is  now  living 
will  pass  away.  I  hope  that  our  national  difficulties 
will  also  pass  away,  and  I  hope  that  in  the  streets  of 
Cincinnati  —  good  old  Cincinnati  —  for  centuries  to 
come  the  people  will  give  such  a  reception  to  the  con- 
stitutionally elected  President  of  the  whole  United 
States."  The  next  day,  at  Columbus  —  in  the  extreme 
modesty  that  came  with  his  melancholy  —  he  said  of 
*'  the  very  great  responsibility  "  of  which  he  had  been 
reminded:  "I  am  deeply  sensible  of  that  weighty  re- 
sponsibility. I  can  not  but  know,  what  you  all  know, 
that  without  a  name,  perhaps  without  a  reason  why  I 
should  have  a  name,  there  has  fallen  upon  me  a  task 
such  as  did  not  fall  upon  the  Father  of  his  Country." 
Then,  speaking  of  the  existing  national  troubles,  he 
remarked:  "It  is  a  consoling  circumstance  that  when 
we  look  out  there  is  nothing  that  really  hurts  anybody. 


264       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

We  entertain  different  views  upon  political  questions, 
but  nobody  is  suffering  anything.  This  is  a  most  con- 
soling circumstance,  and  from  it  I  judge  that  all  we 
want  is  time  and  patience,  and  a  reliance  upon  that  God 
who  has  never  forsaken  this  people." 

These  last  soothing  words  led  some  inconsiderate 
people  in  the  commercial  cities  to  the  hasty  conclusion 
that  the  President-elect  had  no  proper  understanding 
of  the  great  crisis. 

At  Steubenville  and  at  Pittsburg  he  improved  his 
opportunity  to  "  speak  across  the  river  "  to  Virginians 
in  the  same  conciliatory  spirit  as  he  had  done  at  Cin- 
cinnati to  Kentuckians.  He  was  also  drawn  out  on  the 
Tariff  question  at  Pittsburg,  speaking  with  moderation 
in  favor  of  Protection.  The  Pennsylvanians  were  spe- 
cially interested  just  then  in  the  Morrill  tariff  bill,  which 
directly  after  became  a  law  with  the  approval  of  Presi- 
dent Buchanan,  and  substantially  placed  the  subject 
without  the  pale  of  party  politics  for  a  number  of  years. 
The  Presidential  train  reached  Cleveland  on  the  15th. 
The  weather  was  of  the  worst,  yet  seemed  to  have  no 
effect  on  the  numbers  or  the  enthusiasm  of  the  multi- 
tude who  escorted  their  guest  in  procession  to  the 
hotel.  Here  he  spoke  at  length,  among  other  things 
saying: 

In  a  country  like  this,  where  every  man  bears  on  his  face 
the  marks  of  intelligence,  where  every  man's  clothing,  if  I 
may  so  speak,  shows  signs  of  comfort,  and  every  dwelling 
signs  of  happiness  and  contentment,  where  schools  and 
churches  abound  on  every  side,  the  Union  can  never  be  in 
danger.  I  would,  if  I  could,  instill  some  degree  of  patriotism 
and  confidence  into  the  political  mind  in  relation  to  this 
matter.  ...  I  think  that  there  is  no  occasion  for  any 
excitement.     I  think  the  crisis,  as  it  is  called,  is  altogether 


ON  THE  WAY  TO  WASHINGTON.      265 

an  artificial  one.  It  has  no  foundation  in  fact.  It  can't  be 
argued  up,  and  it  can't  be  argued  down.  Let  it  alone,  and 
it  will  go  down  of  itself. 

Arriving  in  Buffalo  on  Saturday  evening,  the  16th, 
the  President-elect  was  met  at  the  station  by  a  large 
concourse  of  people,  with  ex-President  Fillmore  at  their 
head,  and  later  there  was  an  address  of  welcome  by  the 
Mayor,  to  which  there  was  a  response,  enjoining  com- 
posure, adherence  to  "  sober  convictions  of  right,"  and 
fidelity  to  constitutional  obligations;  the  clouds  would 
then  be  dispelled,  and  there  would  be  a  bright  and  glo- 
rious future.  He  remained  over  the  Sunday  at  Buffalo, 
and  continued  his  journey  on  Monday,  arriving  at 
Albany  in  the  evening.  Two  speeches  were  made  here, 
one  in  reply  to  Governor  Morgan  and  one  at  the  hall 
of  the  Assembly.  Here,  too,  he  said:  "  If  we  have  pa- 
tience, if  we  maintain  our  equanimity,  though  some  may 
allow  themselves  to  run  off  in  a  burst  of  passion,  I 
still  have  confidence  that  the  Almighty  Ruler  of  the 
Universe,  through  the  instrumentality  of  this  great  and 
intelligent  people,  can  and  will  bring  us  through  this 
difficulty." 

At  Albany  he  was  met  by  a  delegation  from  the 
municipal  authorities  of  New  York,  who  escorted  him 
to  that  city  on  the  19th.  There  he  was  received  with 
demonstrations  unequaled  during  all  this  prolonged 
ovation.  Places  of  business  were  closed,  and  the  streets 
were  thronged  with  people  as  perhaps  never  before. 
Mayor  Fernando  Wood,  on  behalf  of  the  civic  author- 
ities, made  the  welcoming  address,  in  the  course  of 
which  he  spoke  of  a  "  dismembered  government  to  re- 
construct,  and  a  disconnected   and  hostile   people   to 


266       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

reconcile,"  and  said  it  would  "  require  a  high  patriotism 
and  an  elevated  comprehension  of  the  whole  country 
and  its  varied  interests,  opinions  and  prejudices,"  to 
bring  it  "  back  again  to  its  former  harmonious,  consol- 
idated and  prosperous  condition;"  that  "the  present 
political  divisions  have  sorely  afflicted  "  the  people  of 
New  York  City  — "  all  her  material  interests  are  par- 
alyzed," and  "  her  commercial  greatness  is  endan- 
gered." "  We  fear,"  he  added,  "  if  the  Union  dies,  the 
present  supremacy  of  New  York  may  perish  with  it;" 
and  suggested  the  use  of  "  peaceful  and  conciliatory 
means  "  as  the  only  practicable  way  to  restore  "  fra- 
ternal relations  between  the  States."  The  address  was 
courteous  in  tone,  and  well  represented  the  feelings  of 
the  commercial  classes,  no  doubt,  in  the  larger  cities 
in  general.     Lincoln  responded: 

Mr.  Mayor:  It  is  with  feelings  of  deep  gratitude  that 
I  make  my  acknowledgments  for  the  reception  given  me  in 
the  great  commercial  city  of  New  York.  I  can  not  but 
remember  that  this  is  done  by  a  people  who  do  not,  by  a 
majority,  agree  with  me  in  political  sentiment.  It  is  the 
more  grateful  because  in  this  I  see  that  for  the  great  prin- 
ciples of  our  Government  the  people  are  almost  unanimous. 
In  regard  to  the  difficulties  that  confront  us  at  this  time,  and 
of  which  your  Honor  has  thought  fit  to  speak  so  becomingly, 
and  so  justly,  as  I  suppose,  I  can  only  say  that  I  agree  in 
the  sentiments  expressed.  In  my  devotion  to  the  Union, 
I  hope  I  am  behind  no  man  in  the  nation.  In  the  wisdom 
with  which  to  conduct  the  affairs  tending  to  the  preservation 
of  the  Union,  I  fear  that  too  great  confidence  may  have  been 
reposed  in  me ;  but  I  am  sure  I  bring  a  heart  devoted  to  the 
work.  There  is  nothing  that  would  ever  bring  me  to  will- 
ingly consent  to  the  destruction  of  this  Union,  under  which 
not  only  the  great  commercial  city  of  New  York,  but  the 
whole  country,  acquired  its  greatness,  except  it  be  the  pur- 
pose for  which  the  Union  itself  was  formed.     I  understand 


ON  THE  WAY  TO  WASHINGTON.      267 

the  ship  to  be  made  for  the  carrying  and  the  preservation 
of  the  cargo,  and  so  long  as  the  ship  can  be  saved  with  the 
cargo,  it  should  never  be  abandoned,  unless  the  possibility  of 
its  preservation  shall  cease  to  exist  except  at  the  risk  of 
throwing  overboard  both  freight  and  passengers.  So  long, 
then,  as  it  is  possible  that  the  prosperity  and  the  liberty  of 
the  people  shall  be  preserved  in  this  Union,  it  shall  be  my 
purpose  at  all  times  to  use  all  my  power  to  aid  in  its 
preservation.  Again  thanking  you  for  the  reception  given 
me,  allow  me  to  come  to  a  close. 

In  the  evening  he  met,  socially,  a  large  deputation 
from  the  various  Republican  associations  of  the  city 
which  had  taken  part  in  the  last  canvass;  and  he  even 
found  opportunity  to  sit  for  a  time  at  the  opera.  He 
did  not  appear  quite  at  ease  this  evening,  and  he  was 
too  much  preoccupied  with  serious  thoughts,  forbidden 
his  tongue,  to  exert  his  acknowledged  power  of  enter- 
taining by  conversation,  or  to  be  heartily  in  sympathy 
with  the  scenes  of  either  banquet-hall  or  stage.  On  the 
next  day  (Wednesday,  the  20th)  he  left  for  Philadelphia, 
stopping  over  for  a  few  hours  at  Trenton,  where,  in  the 
course  of  an  address  in  the  Senate  Chamber,  he  said: 

I  can  not  but  remember  the  place  that  New  Jersey  holds 
in  our  early  history.  .  .  .  May  I  be  pardoned  if,  upon 
this  occasion,  I  mention  that  away  back  in  my  childhood, 
the  earliest  days  of  my  being  able  to  read,  I  got  hold  of 
a  small  book,  such  a  one  as  few  of  the  younger  members  have 
seen  —  Weems's  i:  Life  of  Washington."  I  remember  all 
the  accounts  there  given  of  the  battlefields  and  struggles 
for  the  liberties  of  the  country,  and  none  fixed  themselves 
upon  my  imagination  so  deeply  as  the  struggle  here  at 
Trenton,  New  Jersey.  The  crossing  of  the  river;  the  con- 
test with  the  Hessians ;  the  great  hardships  endured  at  that 
time  —  all  fixed  themselves  on  my  memory  more  than  any 
other  single  Revolutionary  event ;  and  you  all  know,  for  you 
have  all  been  boys,  how  these  early  impressions  last  longer 
than  any  others.     I  recollect  thinking  then,  boy  even  though 


268        LINCOLN  AND  HTS  PRESIDENCY. 

I  was,  that  there  must  have  been  something  more  than  com- 
mon that  those  men  struggled  for.  I  am  exceedingly  anx- 
ious that  that  thing  which  they  struggled  for,  that  some- 
thing even  more  than  national  independence,  that  something 
that  held  out  a  great  promise  to  all  the  people  of  the  world 
for  all  time  to  come  —  I  am  exceedingly  anxious  that  this 
Union,  the  Constitution,  and  the  liberties  of  the  people  shall 
be  perpetuated  in  accordance  with  the  original  idea  for  which 
that  struggle  was  made.  I  shall  be  most  happy  indeed  if 
I  shall  be  a  humble  instrument  in  the  hands  of  the  Almighty, 
and  of  His  almost  chosen  people,  for  perpetuating  the  object 
of  that  great  struggle. 

And  afterward  in  the  Assembly  Chamber: 

I  shall  endeavor  to  take  the  ground  I  deem  most  just  to 
the  North,  the  East,  the  West,  the  South,  and  the  whole 
country.  I  shall  take  it,  I  hope,  in  good  temper  —  certainly 
with  no  malice  toward  any  section.  I  shall  do  all  that  may 
be  in  my  power  to  promote  a  peaceful  settlement  of  all  our 
difficulties.  The  man  does  not  live  who  is  more  devoted  to 
peace  than  I  am ;  there  is  no  one  who  would  do  more  to 
preserve  it;  but  it  may  be  necessary  to  put  the  foot  down 
firmly. 

This  was  received  with  "  long-continued  applause." 
There  were  many  in  the  nation  who  had  been  closely 
watching  the  expressions  given  from  day  to  day  on 
this  journey,  and  some  whose  emotional  natures  craved 
more  "  Jacksonian  "  words  than  the  President-elect  had 
hitherto  indulged  in.  To  such  persons  this  noted  little 
speech  was  like  a  removal  from  Moultrie  to  Sumter. 
He  would  then,  possibly,  "  put  the  foot  down  "  just  as 
firmly,  should  the  time  come,  as  if  he  had  been  more 
violent  in  declamation. 

His  reception  at  Philadelphia,  in  the  evening,  was 
among  the  most  enthusiastic  of  all.  In  replying  to 
the  Mayor's  address,  he  said  he  deemed  it  a  happy  cir- 


ON  THE  WAY  TO  WASHINGTON.      269 

cumstance  that  the  dissatisfied  ones  did  not  point  to 
anything  in  which  they  were  being  injured,  or  were 
about  to  be  injured;  for  which  reason  he  had  felt  all 
the  while  justified  in  concluding  that  the  crisis,  the 
panic,  the  anxiety  of  the  country  at  this  time  are  arti- 
ficial. Alluding  to  "  the  consecrated  walls  wherein  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States  and  the  Declaration 
of  Independence  were  originally  framed  and  adopted," 
he  said:  "All  my  political  warfare  has  been  in  favor  of 
the  teachings  that  come  from  these  sacred  walls.  May 
my  right  hand  forget  its  cunning,  and  my  tongue  cleave 
to  the  roof  of  my  mouth,  if  ever  I  prove  false  to  these 
teachings." 

Responding  to  an  address  in  Independence  Hall, 
next  morning,  he  used  these  words  —  some  of  them 
specially  significant: 

I  am  rilled  with  deep  emotion  at  rinding  myself  standing 
in  this  place,  where  were  collected  the  wisdom,  the  patriot- 
ism, the  devotion  to  principle,  from  which  sprang  the  in- 
stitutions under  which  we  live.  ...  I  have  never  had 
a  feeling  politically  that  did  not  spring  from  the  sentiments 
embodied  in  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  I  have  often 
pondered  over  the  dangers  which  were  incurred  by  the  men 
who  assembled  here,  and  framed  and  adopted  that  Declara- 
tion. I  have  pondered  over  the  toils  that  were  endured 
by  the  officers  and  soldiers  of  the  army  who  achieved  that 
independence.  I  have  often  inquired  of  myself  what  great 
principle  or  idea  it  was  that  kept  this  Confederacy  so  long 
together.  It  was  not  the  mere  matter  of  the  separation  of 
the  colonies  from  the  mother-land,  but  that  sentiment  in  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  which  gave  liberty  not  alone 
to  the  people  of  this  country,  but,  I  hope,  to  the  world  for 
all  future  time.  It  was  that  which  gave  promise  that  in  due 
time  the  weight  would  be  lifted  from  the  shoulders  of  all 
men.  This  is  a  sentiment  embodied  in  the  Declaration  of 
Independence. 


2yo       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

Now,  my  friends,  can  the  country  be  saved  on  this  basis  ? 
If  it  can,  I  will  consider  myself  one  of  the  happiest  men 
in  the  world  in  helping  to  save  it.  .  .  .  But  if  this  coun- 
try can  not  be  saved  without  giving  up  that  principle  —  I 
was  about  to  say  I  would  rather  be  assassinated  on  this 
spot  than  surrender  it. 

Now,  in  my  view  of  the  present  aspect  of  affairs,  there 
need  be  no  bloodshed  or  war.  There  is  no  necessity  for  it. 
I  am  not  in  favor  of  such  a  course,  and  I  may  say  in  advance 
that  there  will  be  no  bloodshed  unless  it  be  forced  upon  the 
Government,  and  then  it  will  be  compelled  to  act  in  self- 
defense.    .    .    . 

I  have  said  nothing  but  what  I  am  willing  to  live  by, 
and,  if  it  be  the  pleasure  of  Almighty  God,  to  die  by. 

He  left  for  Harrisburg  the  same  morning.  He  was 
there  welcomed  by  Governor  Curtin,  and  was  received 
at  the  State  House  by  the  Legislature.  A  large  body 
of  the  militia  was  in  line  on  the  occasion  —  suggestive 
of  measures  that  had  already  been  taken  by  the  State 
authorities  for  promptly  embodying  a  military  force 
should  there  be  occasion.  In  replying  to  the  Governor, 
Lincoln  alluded  to  this  feature  of  the  reception  as  fol- 
lows: 

I  hope  no  one  of  the  Friends  who  originally  settled  here, 
or  who  lived  here  since  that  time,  or  who  lives  here  now,  has 
been  or  is  a  more  devoted  lover  of  peace,  harmony  and  con- 
cord than  my  humble  self.  While  I  have  been  proud  to 
see  to-day  the  finest  military  array,  I  think,  that  I  have  ever 
seen,  allow  me  to  say,  in  regard  to  those  men,  that  they  give 
hope  of  what  may  be  done  when  war  is  inevitable.  But,  at 
the  same  time,  allow  me  to  express  the  hope  that  in  the 
shedding  of  blood  their  services  may  never  be  needed,  espe- 
cially in  the  shedding  of  fraternal  blood.  It  shall  be  my 
endeavor  to  preserve  the  peace  of  the  country  so  far  as  it 
can  possibly  be  done  consistently  with  the  maintenance  of 
the  institutions  of  the  country. 


ON  THE  WAY  TO  WASHINGTON.      271 

In  presence  of  the  Legislature,  after  returning 
thanks  for  his  reception,  he  said: 

Allusion  has  been  made  to  the  fact  —  the  interesting 
fact,  perhaps  I  should  say  —  that  I  for  the  first  time  appear 
at  the  capital  of  the  great  commonwealth  of  Pennsylvania 
upon  the  birthday  of  the  Father  of  his  Country  —  that  be- 
loved anniversary  connected  with  the  history  of  this  country. 
I  have  already  gone  through  with  one  exceedingly  interesting 
scene  this  morning  in  the  ceremonies  at  Philadelphia.  .  .  . 
Our  friends  there  had  provided  a  magnificent  flag  of  the 
country.  They  had  arranged  it  so  that  I  was  given  the 
honor  of  raising  it  to  the  head  of  its  staff.  And  when  it 
went  up  I  was  pleased  that  it  went  to  its  place  by  the  strength 
of  my  own  feeble  arm.  ...  In  the  whole  transaction 
I  was  in  the  hands  of  the  people  who  had  arranged  it ;  and 
if  I  can  have  the  same  generous  co-operation  of  the  people 
of  the  nation,  I  think  the  flag  of  our  country  may  yet  be 
kept  flaunting  gloriously. 

This  was  his  last  public  appearance  during  the  jour- 
ney, which  ended  differently  from  the  original  intention, 
and  in  a  manner  that  gave  surprise  to  the  country. 

The  Electoral  count  (on  the  13th  of  February)  was 
unobstructed  by  any  material  dispute  or  question.  For 
months  past,  nevertheless,  there  had  been  threats  and 
predictions  akin  to  threats,  that  Lincoln  would  never 
be  inaugurated  as  President.  It  was  not  generally 
known  —  as  it  was  to  a  few  who  were  in  close  relations 
with  him  —  that  he  had  received  many  malicious  letters, 
both  before  and  after  the  election,  foreshadowing  his 
assassination.  It  was  no  secret  that  special  precaution 
and  care  were  taken  for  the  safety  of  his  person  while 
on  his  way  to  Washington.  Save  one  or  two  dubious 
incidents  exciting  momentary  suspicion,  all  was  pro- 
pitious until  the  evening  of  the  arrival  at  Philadelphia. 


272        LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

At  this  point  there  came  warning,  on  the  responsible 
authority  of  Mr.  Seward  and  the  Lieutenant-General, 
of  a  plot  for  Lincoln's  assassination  in  Baltimore. 

General  Scott  was  thought  by  some  to  be  unduly 
anxious  about  the  inauguration.  In  the  Peace  Con- 
ference, on  the  1 8th  —  the  day  on  which  a  "  Chief  of 
the  Six  Nations  "  assumed  power  at  Montgomery  — 
Mr.  Guthrie,  of  Kentucky,  must  have  surprised  many 
of  his  fellow-members  by  saying: 

I  have  had  full  and  free  communication  with  people  of 
all  portions  of  the  South  before,  during  and  since  the  elec- 
tion of  the  6th  of  November,  and  I  state  here,  that  I  have 
never  dreamed  that  there  was  the  slightest  objection  any- 
where to  the  inauguration  of  Mr.  Lincoln.  To-day  is  the 
first  time  I  have  heard  the  question  raised,  and  yet  I  do  not 
believe  that  any  such  objection  now  exists. 

There  had  been  no  lack  of  such  talk,  however,  not 
only  among  men  with  whom  Mr.  Guthrie  had  no  per- 
sonal association,  but  also  in  newspapers  which  he  did 
not  read.  That  General  Scott  had  sufficient  reasons  for 
the  precautions  taken  is  shown  by  his  testimony  (Jan- 
uary 31st  and  February  7th)  before  a  special  committee 
of  the  House  (known  as  the  Howard  Committee)  ap- 
pointed to  inquire  into  "  alleged  hostile  organizations 
against  the  Government  in  the  District  of  Columbia." 
Nor  was  he  by  any  means  alone  in  scenting  the  par- 
ticular danger  of  which  he  now  gave  warning.  The 
managers  of  the  railway  from  Philadelphia  to  Baltimore 
had  arrived  at  the  conclusion  —  from  evidence  furnished 
by  their  own  detectives  —  that  there  was  a  plot  for  the 
assassination  of  Lincoln  when  he  reached  Baltimore. 
Mr.  Seward,  through  detectives  acting  quite  indepen- 
dently of  those  just  mentioned,  had  information  that 


ON  THE  WAY  TO  WASHINGTON.      273 

seemed  to  him  so  convincing  as  to  require  prompt 
action.  He  dispatched  his  son,  Frederick  W.  Seward, 
to  Philadelphia,  to  communicate  the  information  to 
Lincoln  and  to  urge  him  to  anticipate  the  expected  time 
of  passing  through  Baltimore.  Instead  of  going  at 
once,  as  urged,  he  determined  to  keep  his  engagement 
at  Harrisburg  on  the  next  day.  The  ceremonies  there 
being  over,  he  returned  the  same  evening  to  Philadel- 
phia, where,  with  friends  accompanying  him,  including 
railway  officials  who  were  in  the  secret,  he  took  the 
regular  express  train  for  Washington,  about  midnight, 
arriving  there  early  in  the  morning  (the  23d). 

The  sudden  conclusion  of  the  journey  was  known 
far  and  near  before  the  train  from  Harrisburg,  on  which 
he  had  been  expected,  ran  into  Baltimore,  where  the 
day  passed  without  disturbance.  Mrs.  Lincoln  and  the 
party  with  her  were  courteously  treated  in  the  city, 
receiving  attentions  from  some  of  the  municipal  offi- 
cers, though  politically  hostile,  and  the  transit  through 
the  city,  soon  effected,  was  made  as  agreeable  as  pos- 
sible. The  President-elect,  however,  had  been  tendered 
no  hospitalities  such  as  were  offered  by  every  other 
prominent  city  on  his  route.  He  was  under  no  obli- 
gation to  make  his  entry  or  departure  a  public  affair. 
The  "  Conservative  Union  "  newspaper,  the  Baltimore 
American,  said  next  day  that  the  "  prevailing  feeling 
excited  by  Mr.  Lincoln's  quiet  passage  through  Balti- 
more was  one  of  relief  and  of  gratification,  though  ex- 
pressions of  disappointed  curiosity  were  frequently 
heard;"  and  that  his  action  "was  a  simple  and  prac- 
tical avoidance  of  what  might  have  been  an  occasion 


18 


274        LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

of  disorder  and  mortification  to  all  interested  in  the 
preservation  of  the  good  name  of  our  city." 

James  Buchanan  had  yet  eight  days  to  remain 
in  office  when  Abraham  Lincoln,  accompanied  by  Mr. 
Seward,  called  at  the  White  House.  Mr.  Buchanan, 
wearied  and  worn,  faint  if  not  sick  at  heart,  dubious,  as 
he  sometimes  pathetically  enough  expressed  himself, 
about  the  ultimate  verdict  of  history  on  his  administra- 
tion, and  anxious  to  lay  down  his  burden,  was  not 
merely  politely  complacent  to  his  sucessor,  but  heartily 
glad  to  see  him  safely  arrived.  From  thence  Lincoln 
and  Seward  went  to  call  upon  the  veteran  head  of  the 
army.  With  stately  deference,  as  to  one  who  would 
soon  be  his  superior  in  office,  General  Scott  also  wel- 
comed the  man  from  the  prairies,  and  hinted  of  the 
military  preparations  which  were  to  give  security  to 
the  coming  ceremonies  and  unhindered  possession  of 
the  executive  departments  thereafter. 

To  the  country  in  general,  undeniably,  this  seemed 
an  inauspicious  advent.  Inimical  jeers  were  not  en- 
tirely warded  off  by  friendly  explanations.  Many  of  the 
warmest  supporters  of  the  new  President  were  cha- 
grined when  they  learned,  on  that  chill  February  day, 
that  his  "  progress "  had  terminated  in  an  entry  so 
private.  This  was  aggravated  by  the  invention,  soon 
exposed,  that  he  had  traveled  from  Philadelphia  to 
Washington  in  disguise.  There  came  reassurance  in 
the  belief  that  the  night  journey  had  been  taken  on 
the  advice  of  well-informed  friends  who  had  a  right  to 
be  heard,  and  in  the  certainty  that  it  had  avoided  a 
positive  peril.  In  crossing  Mason  and  Dixon's  line, 
Lincoln  had  now  come  within  territory  which  the  seces- 


ON  THE  WAY  TO  WASHINGTON.       275 

sion  leaders  coveted,  claimed,  labored  incessantly  to  pos- 
sess as  part  and  parcel  of  their  confederacy.  He  had 
not  only  traversed  the  largest  city  of  the  South,  but 
had  come  to  be  inaugurated  as  President  in  a  commu- 
nity holding  slaves  and  surrounded  by  a  slave-holding 
country.  Abhorring  the  man  who  had  thus  suddenly 
come  among  them,  few  of  the  dominant  class  willingly 
endured  the  thought  that  he  had  come  to  stay. 

In  the  brief  time  remaining,  the  President-elect  gave 
his  last  revision  to  the  inaugural  address  which  he  had 
written  before  leaving  Springfield.  Few  changes  were 
made,  and  none  seriously  affecting  the  policy  an- 
nounced, unless  it  be  what  is  said  of  the  so-called  "  Cor- 
win  amendment."  No  one  except  Mr.  Seward  appears 
to  have  been  consulted  in  the  matter,  and  his  sugges- 
tions related  chiefly  to  forms  of  expression  and  to  the 
sentimental  appeal  with  which  the  address  closes.  For 
the  last  two  months  many  politicians  had  looked  upon 
the  New  York  Senator  as  the  real  power  on  whom 
nearly  everything  at  this  crisis  was  to  depend.  There 
was  little  resistance  to  his  appointment  as  Secretary  of 
State,  but  opposition  to  Mr.  Chase  for  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury  was  kept  up  with  some  vigor  to  the  last  — 
especially  by  the  friends  of  Mr.  Seward  and  of  Mr.  Cam- 
eron. In  regard  to  these  three  prospective  members 
of  the  Cabinet,  the  purpose  of  Lincoln  was  unchanged 
by  any  controversy  after  he  reached  Washington,  and 
the  same  may  be  said  as  to  most  of  their  associates. 

The  Peace  Conference  adjourned  on  the  27th  of 
February,  and  thereupon  a  salute  was  fired  by  Ma- 
gruder's  battery  on  Judiciary  Square  —  presumably  in 
honor   of  the   propositions   recommended   by   a   small 


276       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

majority  for  the  consideration  of  Congress,  from  which 
the  Senators  and  Representatives  of  the  Cotton  States 
had  long  since  retired.  In  the  Senate  there  was  some 
apparent  relenting  at  last  in  favor  of  the  Crittenden 
Compromise,  though  on  coming  to  a  vote  it  was  lost 
(yeas,  19;  nays,  20).  The  Corwin  amendment  (reported 
by  the  House  Committee  of  thirty-three)  —  to  prevent 
any  future  amendment  giving  Congress  power  to  abol- 
ish slavery  in  the  States  —  was  agreed  to  by  the  re- 
quired two-thirds  vote  in  both  Houses.  Such  was  the 
sum  and  the  end  of  Congressional  attempts  at  con- 
ciliation. 


CHAPTER   XXI. 
1861. 

Inauguration  —  Cabinet  and  Diplomatic  Appointments. 

No  unpropitious  signs  were  visible  on  the  morning 
of  the  4th  of  March.  A  few  regular  soldiers  and  some 
volunteer  military  companies  were  seasonably  forming 
to  take  part  in  the  customary  procession.  Magruder's 
battery  took  its  appointed  station  on  Capitol  Hill,  out 
of  sight  of  the  main  crowd  beginning  to  gather.  There 
were,  too,  armed  sentinels  on  house-tops  at  several 
points  along  Pennsylvania  Avenue  before  the  proces- 
sion began  to  move.  From  first  to  last,  neither  martial 
guard  nor  armed  police  seemed  to  be  of  use  beyond 
their  share  in  a  pacific  parade.  The  coming  man, 
seated  in  open  carriage  with  his  predecessor,  was 
greeted  by  many  thousands  of  voices  as  he  moved 
along  the  broad  avenue  and  ascended  to  the  capitol. 
Entering  on  the  Senate  side,  he  advanced  from  within 
to  the  rude  stand  from  which  he  was  to  speak,  on  the 
eastern  portico. 

Near  by  in  the  surrounding  assembly  of  notables 
stood  Senator  Douglas.  On  the  pedestal  of  a  column, 
slight  Senator  Wigfall,  stick  in  hand,  wriggled  uneasily; 
while  here  and  there  other  Southern  representatives 
were  less  conspicuously  looking  on  —  Secessionists  who 
still  lingered  unmolested  and  at  present  unmolesting. 

(277) 


278       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

Qeneral  Scott  was  away,  anxiously  superintending  his 
military  arrangements.  Whether  his  right-hand  man, 
Adjutant-General  Samuel  Cooper,  and  his  foremost  and 
favored  subordinate  of  the  line,  Colonel  Robert  E.  Lee, 
were  nearer  listeners  and  observers  of  the  proceedings 
on  the  portico,  or  accompanied  their  chief,  can  not 
be  distinctly  recorded.  Captain  John  B.  Magruder  was 
altogether  missing,  not  having  yet  returned  from  an 
absence  abroad  on  leave,  so  that  his  important  artillery 
company  had  not  at  this  moment  the  benefit  of  his  per- 
sonal control.  Commander  Buchanan,  in  whose  charge 
was  the  Washington  navy-yard,  with  all  its  great  in- 
terests, was  probably  within  eye-shot  of  restless  Wigfall. 
Justice  Campbell,  of  Alabama,  was  present  with  the 
other  Judges  of  the  Supreme  Court.  Chief-Justice 
Taney,  now  far  advanced  beyond  the  usual  limit  of 
human  life  and  looking  debilitated  and  withered,  had 
expressed  in  a  positive  manner  his  determination  to  ad- 
minister to  Abraham  Lincoln  the  oath  which  he  had 
administered  to  every  President  since  Andrew  Jackson. 
The  grounds  in  front  were  covered  with  myriads  of 
people,  compact  and  quietly  disposed;  and  many  shade- 
trees,  now  leafless,  were  darkened  with  clinging  spec- 
tators. When  Lincoln  rose  to  speak  he  was  introduced 
by  his  friend,  Senator  Edward  D.  Baker,  and  had  such 
greeting  as  only  a  great  sympathetic  throng  of  men 
can  give.  The  table  on  which  he  laid  his  manuscript 
before  him  was  small  and  had  no  available  place  for  his 
hat,  which  Senator  Douglas  politely  took  and  held  in 
hand.  The  atmosphere  was  clear,  cool,  but  not  un- 
pleasantly chilly;  there  was  sometimes  sunshine  and 
sometimes  shadow,  as  with  earnest  but  deliberate  and 


INAUGURATION— APPOINTMENTS.     279 

well  modulated  voice,  the  President-elect  proceeded. 
There  was  a  fresh  wind  abroad,  and  presently  he  placed 
his  gold-headed  cane  across  the  fluttering  pages,  keep- 
ing them  in  place  as  one  after  another  was  turned  over. 
But  he   spoke  without   hesitation,   from   memory. 

The  inaugural  had  but  one  general  theme.  Some 
points  of  it  are  detachable  as  indicating  the  purposes 
and  policy  which  the  new  President  had  in  mind  at 
the  beginning;  while  as  a  whole  it  is  one  of  his  most 
impressive  papers.  "Apprehension  seems  to  exist 
among  the  people  of  the  Southern  States,"  he  said, 
"  that,  by  the  accession  of  a  Republican  administration 
their  property  and  their  peace  and  personal  security 
are  to  be  endangered.  There  has  never  been  any  rea- 
sonable cause  for  such  apprehension.  Indeed,  the  most 
ample  evidence  to  the  contrary  has  all  the  while  existed 
and  been  open  to  inspection.  It  is  found  in  nearly  all 
the  published  speeches  of  him  who  now  addresses  you. 
I  do  but  quote  from  one  of  those  speeches  when  I 
declare  that  '  I  have  no  purpose,  directly  or  indirectly, 
to  interfere  with  the  institution  of  slavery  in  the  States 
where  it  exists.  I  believe  I  have  no  lawful  right  to  do 
so;  and  I  have  no  inclination  to  do  so.' '  He  cited  also 
a  resolution  of  the  convention  which  nominated  him,  as 
"clear  and  emphatic"  on  this  matter,  and  continued: 

I  now  reiterate  these  sentiments ;  and  in  doing  so  I  only 
press  upon  the  public  attention  the  most  conclusive  evidence 
of  which  the  case  is  susceptible,  that  the  property,  peace  and 
security  of  no  section  are  to  be  in  anywise  endangered  by 
the  now  incoming  administration.  I  add,  too,  that  all  the 
protection  which,  consistently  with  the  Constitution  and  the 
laws,  can  be  given,  will  be  cheerfully  given,  to  all  the  States 
when  lawfully  demanded,  for  whatever  cause,  as  cheerfully 
to  one  section  as  to  another. 


28o       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

A  comprehensive  pledge,  when  closely  considered. 

At  greater  length  he  spoke  of  the  rendition  of  fugi- 
tive slaves,  in  terms  that  would  seem  to  be  sufficient 
to  satisfy  reasonable  men  of  the  South,  yet  not  more 
explicit  that  he  had  repeatedly  used  on  the  stump  in 
Illinois.  He  further  said  in  this  connection:  "  I  take 
the  official  oath  to-day  with  no  mental  reservations,  and 
with  no  purpose  to  construe  the  Constitution  or  laws 
by  any  hypercritical  rules."  He  then  took  up  the  mat- 
ter of  Disunion,  arguing  in  his  most  forcible  manner 
against  the  right  of  a  State  to  secede  —  concluding  on 
this  point: 

I  therefore  consider  that,  in  view  of  the  Constitution  and 
the  laws,  the  Union  is  unbroken,  and,  to  the  extent  of  my 
ability,  I  shall  take  care,  as  the  Constitution  itself  expressly 
enjoins  upon  me,  that  the  laws  of  the  Union  shall  be  faith- 
fully executed  in  all  the  States.  Doing  this  I  deem  to  be 
only  a  simple  duty  on  my  part ;  and  I  shall  perform  it,  so 
far  as  practicable,  unless  my  rightful  masters,  the  American 
people,  shall  withhold  the  requisite  means,  or  in  some  au- 
thoritative matter  direct  the  contrary. 

I  trust  this  will  not  be  regarded  as  a  menace,  but  only 
as  the  declared  purpose  of  the  Union  that  it  will  constitu- 
tionally defend  and  maintain  itself.  In  doing  this  there 
need  be  no  bloodshed  or  violence,  and  there  shall  be  none 
unless  it  is  forced  upon  the  national  authority. 

The  power  confided  to  me  will  be  used  to  hold,  occupy 
and  possess  the  property  and  places  belonging  to  the  Gov- 
ernment, and  to  collect  the  duties  and  imposts ;  but  beyond 
what  may  be  necessary  for  these  objects  there  will  be  no 
invasion,  no  using  of  force  against  or  among  the  people  any- 
where. .  .  .  The  course  here  indicated  will  be  followed, 
unless  current  events  and  experience  shall  show  a  modifica- 
tion or  change  to  be  proper ;  and  in  every  case  and  exigency 
my  best  discretion  will  be  exercised  according  to  circum- 
stances actually  existing,  and  with  a  view  and  a  hope  of  a 


INAUGURATION— APPOINTMENTS.     281 

peaceful  solution  of  the  national  troubles,  and  the  restora- 
tion of  fraternal  sympathies  and  affections. 

Argument,  persuasion,  entreaty  followed: 

Physically  speaking,  we  can  not  separate ;  we  can  not 
remove  our  respective  sections  from  each  other,  nor  build 
an  impassable  wall  between  them.  A  husband  and  wife 
may  be  divorced,  and  go  out  of  the  presence  and  beyond 
the  reach  of  each  other,  but  the  different  parts  of  our  coun- 
try can  not  do  this.  They  can  not  but  remain  face  to  face ; 
and  intercourse,  either  amicable  or  hostile,  must  continue 
between  them.  Is  it  possible,  then,  to  make  that  intercourse 
more  advantageous  or  more  satisfactory  after  separation 
than  before?  Can  aliens  make  treaties  easier  than  friends 
can  make  laws?  Can  treaties  be  more  faithfully  enforced 
between  aliens  than  laws  can  among  friends?  Suppose  you 
go  to  war,  you  can  not  fight  always ;  and  when,  after  much 
loss  on  both  sides,  and  no  gain  on  either,  you  cease  fighting, 
the  identical  question  as  to  terms  of  intercourse  are  again 
upon  you.    .    .    . 

If  it  were  admitted  that  you  who  are  dissatisfied  hold 
the  right  side  in  the  dispute,  there  is  still  no  single  reason 
for  precipitate  action.  Intelligence,  patriotism,  Christianity, 
and  a  firm  reliance  on  Him  who  has  never  yet  forsaken  this 
favored  land,  are  still  competent  to  adjust,  in  the  best  way, 
all  our  present  difficulties. 

In  your  hands,  my  dissatisfied  fellow-countrymen,  and 
not  in  mine,  is  the  momentous  issue  of  civil  war.  The  Gov- 
ernment will  not  assail  you.  You  can  have  no  conflict  with- 
out being  yourselves  the  aggressors.  You  have  no  oath 
registered  in  Heaven  to  destroy  the  Government;  while  I 
shall  have  the  most  solemn  one  to  "  preserve,  protect  and 
defend"  it. 

I  am  loath  to  close.  We  are  not  enemies,  but  friends. 
We  must  not  be  enemies.  Though  passion  may  have 
strained,  it  must  not  break  our  bonds  of  affection.  The 
mystic  chords  of  memory,  stretching  from  every  battlefield 
and  patriot  grave  to  every  living  heart  and  hearthstone  all 
over  this  broad  land,  will  yet  swell  the  chorus  of  the  Union 


282        LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

when  again  touched,  as  surely  they  will  be,  by  the  better 
angels  of  our  nature. 

After  bowing  response  to  the  applause  of  his  audi- 
tors, he  turned  to  Chief  Justice  Taney,  at  his  side,  and 
repeated  from  his  lips  the  required  official  oath.  Then 
followed  a  salute  from  the  cannons  of  the  battery  near 
at  hand,  while  the  procession  re-formed  and  began  its 
return  march  to  the  White  House.  At  its  door,  James 
Buchanan  took  courteous  leave,  with  benedictions  on 
his  successor,  and  Abraham  Lincoln  entered  as  its 
master. 

At  all  times,  a  change  of  administration  implies  a 
general  change  of  civil  officers  having  direct  relations 
with  the  President  or  with  the  heads  of  departments. 
Now  there  were  extraordinary  reasons  for  a  thorough 
reorganization.  The  matter  of  appointments  received 
immediate  and  laborious  attention  from  the  new  Pres- 
ident; some  there  were  who  thought  his  time  too  much 
occupied  in  this  way  at  such  a  juncture;  but  the  event 
showed  that  the  work  was  not  overdone.  The  Cabinet 
officers,  already  settled  in  his  own  mind  before  the 
inauguration,  were  nominated  to  the  Senate  the  next 
day  and  promptly  confirmed  —  namely:  Secretary  of 
State,  William  H.  Seward,  of  New  York;  of  the  Treas- 
ury, Salmon  P.  Chase,  of  Ohio;  of  War,  Simon  Cam- 
eron, of  Pennsylvania;  of  the  Navy,  Gideon  Welles,  of 
Connecticut;  of  the  Interior,  Caleb  B.  Smith,  of  In- 
diana; Attorney-General,  Edward  Bates,  of  Missouri; 
Postmaster-General,   Montgomery  Blair,  of  Maryland. 

Next  in  importance  was  the  diplomatic  service, 
largely  filled  with  Southern  men  or  with  others  as  hos- 


INAUGURATION— APPOINTMENTS.     283 

tile  to  the  Republican  policy:  men,  too,  who  were  in 
some  instances  exerting  themselves  in  opposition  to 
the  Union  and  the  Government  which  accredited  them. 
Among  the  new  foreign  appointments  were:  Charles 
Francis  Adams,  of  Massachusetts  —  the  personal  choice 
of  Secretary  Seward  —  as  Minister  to  England;  William 
L.  Dayton,  of  New  Jersey,  Minister  to  France;  Norman 
B.  Judd,  of  Illinois,  to  Prussia;  Cassius  M.  Clay,  of  Ken- 
tucky, to  Russia;  John  L.  Motley,  of  Massachusetts, 
to  Austria;  Carl  Schurz,  of  Wisconsin,  to  Spain;  James 
W.  Webb,  of  New  York,  to  Turkey  —  afterward  trans- 
fered  to  Brazil;  Thomas  Corwin,  of  Ohio,  to  Mexico; 
Anson  Burlingame,  of  Massachusetts,  to  China  —  the 
third  mission  given  to  the  "  ancestral  "  State;  and  other 
Republicans  to  the  minor  courts  of  the  Old  World  and 
the  New.  Consular  officers,  a  numerous  body,  were 
also  mostly  changed. 

It  took  no  long  time  to  ascertain  that  Disunionists 
in  the  late  Cabinet  had  willingly  left  the  new  admin- 
istration as  destitute  as  possible  of  everything  it  would 
need  even  for  self-defense.  The  treasury  was  unsup- 
plied  except  through  temporary  expedients  adopted  at 
the  eleventh  hour,  after  loyal  John  A.  Dix  had  suc- 
ceeded Howell  Cobb  as  Secretary.  For  under  the 
latter's  financiering,  the  Government  had  been  reduced 
to  the  strait  and  the  humiliation  of  being  unable  to 
effect  a  necessary  loan,  small  in  amount,  except  on 
terms  which  the  usurer  might  accept  from  a  profligate. 
The  army  was  insignificant  in  numbers  at  the  best,  and 
nearly  all  of  it  that  was  left  after  Twiggs  surrendered 
to  the  Texas  secessionists  in  February  was  out  of  im- 


284        LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

mediate  reach.  The  navy  had  few  vessels  which  were 
not  cruising  or  idling  far  away  in  foreign  waters.  With 
two  or  three  exceptions,  every  fort  on  the  Southern 
coast  beyond  Old  Point  Comfort,  whether  in  the  con- 
federated seceding  States  or  not,  and  the  navy-yards 
beyond  Norfolk,  as  well  as  the  arsenals,  mints,  sub- 
treasuries  and  Federal  property  in  general  in  the  Cot- 
ton States,  had  been  tamely  permitted  to  pass  into  the 
hands  of  the  Confederates. 


CHAPTER  XXII. 
First  Forty  Days  —  The  Fort  Sumter  Problem. 

The  new  President  still  hoped  for  some  adjustment 
of  the  national  troubles;  though  hope  is  not  iden- 
tical with  faith.  He  was  certainly  less  sanguine  than 
Mr.  Seward,  who  had  been  laboring  in  his  own  way  for 
months  past  to  establish  an  effective  Union  party  in 
the  South.  In  his  inaugural,  Lincoln  had  spoken  favor- 
ably of  calling  a  national  convention,  as  provided  for 
in  the  Constitution  —  a  measure  which  Calhoun  him- 
self had  once  thought  preferable  to  rash  secession;  had 
promised  a  continuance  of  the  mail  service  to  the  re- 
cusant States,  unless  repelled,  and  had  expressed  his 
desire  to  maintain  such  pacific  conditions  as  would  give 
opportunity  for  calm  consideration. 

There  was  encouragement  in  the  fact  that  eight  of 
the  slave-holding  States,  having  a  decided  majority  of 
the  Southern  population,*  had  resisted  secession  and 
appeared  to  be  still  devoted  to  the  Union  —  an  encour- 
agement quite  substantial,  provided  only  that  the  Union 
sentiment  was  earnest  and  increasing,  not  faint  and  fail- 
ing.    To  retain  Virginia,  Kentucky,   North  Carolina, 


*  Excluding  slaves,  these  eight  States  had  (in  i860)  a  popula- 
tion of  5,632,993;  and  the  seven  Secession  States  only  2,661,879.  Of 
slaves  the  former  States  had  an  aggregate  of  1,636,159;  the  latter, 
2,307,262. 

(285) 


286       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

Tennessee,  Maryland,  Delaware,  Missouri  and  Arkansas 
in  their  present  attitude,  and  to  leave  the  seven  refrac- 
tory States  to  grow  weary  of  their  experiment  —  which 
might  soon  collapse  through  reactionary  or  servile  in- 
surrection —  yet  without  recognizing  their  assumed 
secession  or  coming  into  collision  with  any  of  them 
singly  or  all  conjointly,  seemed  practicable  to  the  Sec- 
retary of  State,  and  its  accomplishment  a  master  stroke 
of  statesmanship. 

Nor  did  Mr.  Seward  see  anything  fatal  to  this 
scheme  in  the  inaugural  address,  though  it  was  more 
positive  on  some  points  than  he  would  have  wished. 
The  address  is  to  be  read  in  its  proper  light  as  indi- 
cating the  course  the  Administration  would  pursue  in 
the  absence  of  armed  violence,  coupled  with  the  assur- 
ance that  peace  would  continue  unless  the  malcontents 
should  themselves  begin  war.  With  those  who  were 
"  dissatisfied  "  would  rest  the  choice. 

Instead  of  receiving  the  inaugural  address  in  the 
conciliatory  and  pacific  spirit  in  which  it  was  written, 
the  authors  of  secession  pronounced  it  a  declaration 
of  war.  On  the  9th  of  March  the  Montgomery  Con- 
gress passed  an  act  to  provide  for  a  Confederate  army, 
pursuant  to  the  recommendation  of  their  "  chief,"  Jef- 
ferson Davis.  This  was  their  response.  The  President 
never  imagined,  of  course,  that  these  persons  were  at 
present  to  be  persuaded  or  restrained  by  anything  he 
could  say.  His  arguments  and  appeals  were  not  made 
for  their  ears  alone.  Not  only  were  eight  slave  States 
refusing  to  follow  their  lead,  but  in  the  Confederate 
seven  it  was  believed  there  were  large  numbers  of  people 
whose  hearts  were  not  in  the  secession  cause.     Nothing 


FIRST  FORTY  DAYS— FORT  SUMTER.     287 

would  satisfy  its  leaders,  he  well  knew,  short  of  absolute 
severance  from  the  Union;  but  was  it  too  late  for  the 
South,  by  repudiating-  these  men  altogether,  to  escape 
the  abyss  toward  which  they  were  guiding  her? 

Three  days  after  the  passage  of  the  act  to  raise  a 
Confederate  army,  Mr.  Forsyth,  of  Alabama,  and  Mr. 
Crawford,  of  Georgia,  presented  themselves  at  the  State 
Department  in  Washington  in  the  attitude  of  commis- 
sioners representing  "  an  independent  nation  de  facto 
and  de  jure"  and  asking  the  negotiation  of  a  treaty. 
The  President  declined  all  recognition  of  them;  and 
with  Mr.  Seward's  "  memorandum  "  to  this  effect  was 
inclosed  a  copy  of  the  inaugural  address,  to  which  these 
gentlemen  were  referred  for  the  views  of  the  Govern- 
ment in  the  case.  Representations,  however,  were 
made  to  them  by  Justice  Campbell,  who  was  in  com- 
munication with  Mr.  Seward,  which  they  construed  as 
an  assurance  of  the  speedy  evacuation  of  Fort  Sumter. 

Forts  Sumter  and  Pickens  were  in  those  days  ob- 
jects of  engrossing  solicitude.  On  the  morning  after 
the  inauguration  the  President's  attention  was  called 
to  a  letter  received  the  day  before  by  the  Secretary  of 
War  (Mr.  Holt)  from  Major  Anderson,  indicating  that 
unless  he  was  sustained  by  a  force  about  twenty  thou- 
sand strong,  it  would  be  better  to  make  no  farther 
efforts  to  hold  Fort  Sumter.  The  Secretary  was  sur- 
prised —  so  different  was  this  from  the  reports  before 
received  from  Major  Anderson.  It  was  not  less  a  sur- 
prise to  the  President.  He  conferred  with  Mr.  Seward, 
who  favored  the  proposed  surrender  of  the  fort. 

The  Senate,  in  extra  session  for  executive  business, 
sat  until  the   18th  of  March.     Many  Representatives- 


288        LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

elect,  as  well  as  many  unreturned  members  whose  terms 
had  just  expired,  lingered  in  Washington,  not  only  in- 
teresting themselves  in  the  distribution  of  Government 
offices,  but  growing  concerned  over  the  prolonged  in- 
action and  reticence  of  the  Administration  touching 
affairs  at  Charleston.  Senators  in  their  places  fell  to 
discussing  the  subject.  Among  the  Democrats  who 
seemed  very  solicitous  for  an  authentic  avowal  of  the 
President's  intention  was  Mr.  Douglas,  who  sought  to 
extort  some  explicit  expression  from  the  Republican 
side,  but  without  much  satisfaction. 

The  President,  determined  at  all  events  to  retain 
possession  of  Fort  Pickens  unless  it  was  assailed  and 
captured  by  force,  which  he  would  guard  against  by 
sending  reinforcements  and  supplies,  was  meanwhile 
considering  whether  a  like  course  was  now  practicable 
and  expedient  in  regard  to  Fort  Sumter.  He  learned 
that  a  former  officer  of  the  Navy,  Captain  Gustavus  V. 
Fox,  now  in  private  life  after  eighteen  years  of  cred- 
itable service,  had  proposed  a  plan  for  supplying  and 
reinforcing  the  fort,  directly  after  the  failure  of  the  Star 
of  the  West,  and  that  his  plan  found  favor  with  the  War 
Department  and  would  have  been  tried  had  not  Mr. 
Buchanan  finally  withheld  his  consent.  Captain  Fox 
was  a  son-in-law  of  Levi  Woodbury,  of  New  Hamp- 
shire, formerly  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  to  whom 
Postmaster-General  Blair  sustained  the  same  relation. 
Through  the  medium  of  Mr.  Blair,  the  President  in- 
vited an  interview  with  Fox  on  the  12th  of  March, 
which  was  had  in  conjunction  with  General  Scott,  at 
the  latter's  office.  The  General,  who  had  approved  this 
project  in  February,  gave  his  opinion  that  it  was  not 


FIRST  FORTY  DAYS— FORT  SUMTER.     289 

now  feasible,  on  account  of  the  batteries  since  erected 
at  the  entrance  of  the  harbor.  With  the  consent  of  the 
President,  Fox  soon  visited  Charleston  and  Fort  Sum- 
ter. Major  Anderson  authorized  him  to  report  that, 
with  his  present  supplies,  he  would  not  be  able  to  hold 
out  beyond  the  15th  of  April,  and  could  not  be  relieved 
except  by  landing  a  large  force  on  Morris  Island.  Cap- 
tain Fox  did  not  mention  to  him  the  plan  under  con- 
sideration, though  himself  convinced  that  the  circum- 
stances did  not  preclude  its  trial. 

On  the  15th  of  March,  Lincoln  sent  this  note  to 
Secretary  Cameron  and  the  other  Cabinet  officers: 

Assuming  it  to  be  possible  to  now  provision  Fort  Sumter, 
under  all  the  circumstances  is  it  wise  to  attempt  it?  Please 
give  me  your  opinion  in  writing  on  this  question. 

Mr.  Cameron  thought  it  would  be  "  unwise  " — con- 
curring with  the  known  views  of  Secretary  Seward. 
All  the  other  members  of  the  Cabinet,  with  but  two 
exceptions,  replied  to  the  same  effect.  Mr.  Blair  was 
positive  and  earnest  in  the  affirmative;  and  Secretary 
Chase  inclined,  though  less  decidedly,  to  the  same  side. 
Two  weeks  later,  some  days  after  Captain  Fox's  re- 
turn, followed  by  further  consultations,  the  President 
gave  this  order  (March  29th)  to  the  Secretary  of  War: 

I  desire  that  an  expedition,  to  move  by  sea,  be  got  ready 
to  sail  as  early  as  the  6th  of  April  next,  the  whole  according 
to  the  memorandum  attached,  and  that  you  co-operate  with 
the  Secretary  of  the  Navy  for  that  object. 

The  details  of  the  "  memorandum  "  were  in  accord 
with  the  project  of  Captain   Fox,  which,  in  his  own 
language,    "  simply    involved    passing    batteries    with 
19 


290       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

steamers  or  boats  at  night,  at  right  angles  to  their  line 
of  fire,  and  one  thousand  three  hundred  yards  distant, 
a  feat  of  which  the  Crimean  war  furnished  many  safe 
examples."  It  may  be  added  that  there  were  many 
similar  examples  at  home  during  the  next  four  years. 
The  steamship  Baltic,  of  the  Collins  line,  was  chartered 
for  the  main  work  of  transportation  and  was  to  be  sus- 
tained by  three  vessels  of  the  Navy  —  the  Powhatan, 
the  Pawnee  and  the  Pocahontas  —  the  revenue  cutter 
Harriet  Lane,  and  three  steam  tugs.  A  number  of 
armed  launches,  with  sailors  to  man  them,  were  on 
board  the  Pozvhatan  for  making  the  intended  transfers 
from  the  Baltic  to  the  fort.  The  expedition  was  under 
the  command  of  Fox,  who  did  not  receive  the  Presi- 
dent's decisive  order  for  its  departure  until  the  4th  of 
April,  when  the  preparations  were  still  uncompleted. 

The  officers  of  the  Navy  received  sealed  orders 
through  Secretary  Welles  —  Captain  Mercer,  of  the 
Powhatan  to  have  chief  command  of  the  naval  con- 
tingent. In  the  further  attempts  at  secrecy,  there 
were  some  irregularities,  Secretary  Seward  preparing 
certain  orders  for  signature  by  the  President  of  which 
Mr.  Welles  had  no  knowledge  at  the  time.  Among 
these  were  two,  dated  April  1st,  "  recommended  "  by 
the  Secretary  of  State,  and  signed  with  others  coming 
from  the  State  Department,  giving  Lieutenant  David 
D.  Porter  command  of  the  Pozvhatan  and  changing 
its  destination  to  Pensacola  harbor.  These  orders  de- 
prived Captain  Fox  of  his  chief  naval  support,  as  well 
as  of  the  launches  on  which  he  relied,  which  were  on 
[board  of  that  vessel.  Secretary  Welles  became  aware 
1  of  this  change  as  the  Powhatan  was  about  leaving  New 


FIRST  FORTY  DAYS— FORT  SUMTER.    291 

York  harbor,  on  the  6th,  and  by  the  President's  au- 
thority attempted  to  restore  the  original  plan,  but  it 
was  now  too  late.  That  frigate  was  not  needed  at  Pen- 
sacola,  and  rendered  no  substantial  assistance  there. 
An  adequate  naval  force  was  already  concerned  in  sup- 
plying and  reinforcing  Fort  Pickens,  which  was  suc- 
cessfully accomplished  without  Porter's  help. 

The  absence  of  the  Powhatan  destroyed  whatever 
chance  of  success  the  Fox  expedition  had.  Its  com- 
mander went  to  sea  on  the  Baltic,  and  arrived  off 
Charleston  harbor  in  entire  ignorance  of  the  with- 
drawal of  the  Powhatan  —  afterwards  explained  to  him 
by  the  President  as  an  "  accident."  There  was,  how- 
ever, a  deliberate  design  in  the  preparation  of  the  orders 
in  question,  which  Secretary  Welles  did  not  hesitate  to 
connect  with  the  following  dispatch  sent  by  Mr.  Seward 
on  the  7th  —  to  Judge  Campbell  now  gone  South: 
"  Faith  as  to  Sumter  fully  kept.     Wait  and  see." 

The  date  of  the  "  accident "  which  detached  the 
Powhatan  from  Fox's  fleet,  April  1st,  also  belongs  to 
another  event  which  should  be  noticed  in  this  connec- 
tion. Hitherto  Mr.  Seward  appears  to  have  regarded 
his  official  position  as  akin  to  that  of  Prime  Minister  — 
practically  the  head  of  the  Administration;  or  at  least 
he  aspired  to  that  power.  He  now  directly  proposed 
an  Administration  "  policy  " —  assuming  that  as  yet 
there  was  none  —  and  that  the  President  should  give 
untrammeled  authority  to  one  of  his  executive  officers 
who  should  be  responsible  for  its  execution.*  The  pol- 
icy was  in  substance:    (1)  Non-resistance  to  the  Con- 


*  See  Nicolay  and  Hay,  "  Complete  Works,"  II.,  29-30,  for  this 
communication  and  Lincoln's  reply  in  full. 


292       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

federates,  and  abandonment  of  the  slavery  issues;  and 
(2)  a  belligerent  attitude  toward  certain  foreign  powers 
—  particularly  France  and  Spain,  the  latter  having  just 
invaded  San  Domingo.  Would  not  a  foreign  war,  with 
Cuba  in  prospective,  recall  the  "  erring  sisters  "  and 
secure  a  speedy  restoration  of  the  Union?  That  Mr. 
Seward  had  any  other  motive  for  desiring  a  war  with 
Spain  is  hardly  conceivable.  However,  he  soon  found 
that  he  had  ventured  too  far,  and  received  a  response 
which  definitely  and  finally  settled  all  question  as  to  his 
official  relation  to  the  President.  What  another  chief 
executive  might  have  deemed  an  unpardonable  affront, 
was  met  with  serene  dignity,  the  superior  informing  his 
subordinate,  in  substance,  that  a  "  policy "  had  been 
duly  announced  in  his  inaugural,  and  that  the  duties 
to  which  the  President  had  been  called  would  not  be 
devolved  upon  another. 

It  is  not  to  be  asserted  that  the  President  ever  cast 
any  blame  upon  Mr.  Seward  for  his  part  in  the  Pow- 
hatan matter;  nor  is  it  worth  while  to  recall  the  free 
comments  of  Mr.  Blair  and  Mr.  Welles,  at  a  later  date, 
on  what  they  probably  never  ceased  to  consider  an 
improper  expedient  of  the  Secretary  of  State  to  evade 
a  charge  of  bad  faith  in  giving  assurances  unauthorized 
by  the  President. 

Notice  was  given  to  the  insurgent  authorities  at 
Charleston  of  the  dispatch  of  supplies  for  Major  Ander- 
son —  in  a  pacific  manner  if  not  resisted  by  force.  The 
only  "  aggression  "  visible,  the  only  "  coercion  "  threat- 
ened, was  the  beleaguering  of  two  Federal  forts  by 
armed  men  under  orders  from  Montgomery. 

On  the  nth  of  April  —  the  day  on  which  the  Fox 


FIRST  FORTY  DAYS— FORT  SUMTER.    293 

expedition  was  expected  to  reach  its  destination  —  Gen- 
eral Beauregard,  under  instructions  from  the  Confeder- 
ate Secretary  of  War,  demanded  of  Major  Anderson  the 
surrender  of  Fort  Sumter.  He  replied  that,  unless  sup- 
plied with  provisions  within  three  days,  or  restrained  by 
further  instructions  from  the  Government,  he  would  at 
the  end  of  that  time  retire.  At  half-past  4  o'clock  on 
the  following  morning  fire  was  opened  upon  the  fort. 
Thirty  large  guns  and  seventeen  mortars  threw  shot 
and  shell. 

Anderson,  dividing  his  slender  garrison  into  relief 
parties  and  waiting  until  they  had  breakfasted  at  their 
usual  hour,  began  his  response  at  7  o'clock,  using  only 
the  lower  tier  of  guns.  Wooden  barracks  left  standing 
were  exposed  to  the  hostile  shells,  which  burst  in  every 
direction  inside  the  walls.  Before  sunset  the  fire  of  the 
fort  ceased,  but  at  7  o'clock  next  morning  was  renewed. 
Beauregard's  batteries,  partially  active  through  the 
night,  had  been  in  full  play  again  for  more  than  an 
hour.  Soon  a  shell  set  fire  to  the  officers'  quarters,  and 
the  men  left  their  guns  to  put  it  out,  and  in  another  hour 
smothering  masses  of  smoke  were  pouring  out  from  the 
burning  barracks,  which  had  before  been  repeatedly  in 
flames  less  serious.  The  men  had  worked  from  the  first 
with  enthusiasm,  and  continued  working  until  further 
exertion  was  a  torture.  At  length,  the  smoke  becom- 
ing thicker  and  thicker  and  the  endangered  magazine 
having  been  emptied  into  the  water,  the  gunners  left 
their  places  for  good.  Not  long  after  noon  the  flag-staff 
was  cut  by  a  missile,  and  while  the  flag  was  momen- 
tarily down,  agile  ex-Senator  Wigfall  shot  out  in  a  boat 
from  Morris  Island,  bearing  a  white  signal;  was  admit- 


294       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

ted  by  a  port-hole  of  the  fort,  and  through  his  unauthor- 
ized intervention  terms  of  surrender  were  agreed  upon, 
which  Beauregard  approved  on  the  evening  of  Saturday. 
The  Baltic  and  some  other  vessels  of  the  Fox  expe- 
dition, delayed  by  a  severe  storm,  had  arrived  within 
hearing  of  Beauregard's  guns  on  Friday  morning,  too 
late  for  the  original  purpose,  and  unable  to  render  any 
service  except  after  the  surrender.  On  Sunday  after- 
noon, the  14th,  Fort  Sumter  was  evacuated,  after  a 
salute  to  its  flag  —  a  flag  carefully  preserved  for  another 
occasion.  Except  from  the  explosion  of  a  gun  in  firing 
this  salute  (by  which  one  man  was  killed  and  three 
wounded),  there  occurred  from  first  to  last,  on  either 
side,  no  recorded  loss  of  life  or  serious  personal  injury. 
The  fire  from  Fort  Sumter,  however,  was  certainly  not 
ineffectual  upon  the  hostile  works.  Outside  the  harbor, 
on  Monday,  the  officers  and  men  were  taken  on  board 
the  Baltic,  which  departed  next  day  for  New  York. 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 

1861. 

Loyal  Uprising  —  President  Lincoln  Calls  for  Seventy-five 

Thousand   Soldiers  —  Four   More   States 

Revolt  —  The  Capital  Isolated. 

In  the  North,  men  of  all  classes  and  all  parties  were 
united  in  their  patriotic  ardor  to  avenge  the  fall  of  Fort 
Sumter  and  to  maintain  the  national  authority.  New 
York,  Philadelphia  and  the  other  great  cities,  whose 
interests  had  made  so  many  people  sensitively  conserva- 
tive, were  at  once  decorated  all  over  with  national  flags 
in  token  of  the  universal  spirit.  In  every  lesser  city,  in 
village,  hamlet,  factory  or  shop,  on  farms  and  waters, 
with  or  without  symbols,  the  spirit  was  the  same. 

Immediately  after  Anderson's  forced  surrender  was 
known  at  the  White  House,  President  Lincoln  prepared 
his  proclamation,  issued  on  April  15th,  declaring  that, 
in  seven  States  named,  there  were  unlawful  "  combina- 
tions too  powerful  to  be  suppressed  by  the  ordinary 
course  of  judicial  proceedings,  or  by  the  powers  vested 
in  the  marshals  by  law"  ;  and  calling  out  the  militia  to 
the  number  of  seventy-five  thousand  men,  "  in  order  to 
suppress  said  combinations  and  to  cause  the  law  to  be 
duly  executed."  He  appealed  to  all  loyal  citizens  "  to 
favor,  facilitate  and  aid  this  effort  to  maintain  the  honor, 
the  integrity,  and  the  existence  of  our  national  Union, 

(295) 


296       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

and  the  perpetuity  of  our  popular  government,  and  to 
redress  wrongs  already  long  enough  endured." 

In  the  same  document  he  called  an  extra  session  of 
Congress,  to  begin  on  the  4th  of  July. 

Of  the  eight  Southern  States  asked  to  send  their 
respective  quotas  under  the  militia  call,  nearly  all  had 
Governors  in  sympathy  with  South  Carolina  and  Seces- 
sion; and  these  returned  defiant  answers  to  the  demand. 
"  The  militia  of  Virginia,"  wrote  Governor  Letcher, 
"  will  not  be  furnished  to  the  powers  at  Washington  for 
any  such  use  or  purpose  as  they  have  in  view."  "  Ken- 
tucky will  furnish  no  troops  for  the  wicked  purpose  of 
subduing  her  sister  Southern  States,"  said  Governor 
Magoffin.  Governor  Harris,  of  Tennessee,  was  inso- 
lently explicit;  Governor  Ellis,  of  North  Carolina,  more 
politely  but  hardly  less  emphatically,  and  the  Governors 
of  Missouri  and  Arkansas,  all  made  known  their  pur- 
pose not  to  heed  the  call.  The  Governors  of  Maryland 
and  Delaware  did  not  in  words  refuse;  and  there  were 
more  than  enough  volunteers  speedily  offered  from 
either  State  to  fill  its  quota.  Nor  is  it  anticipating  very 
much  to  say  that  from  the  other  six  Southern  States, 
whose  Governors  were  thus  recusant,  there  were  added 
to  the  Union  armies  several  times  the  number  of  sol- 
diers thus  asked,  and  ultimately  (exclusive  of  colored 
men)  a  large  multiple.  All  through  the  free  States  the 
response  to  the  call  for  troops  was  hearty  and  more 
than  ample. 

On  the  evening  of  the  14th,  in  the  first  excitement 
over  the  news  from  Charleston,  Senator  Douglas  made 
an  ever-memorable  call  at  the  White  House.  He  came 
voluntarily  to  promise  the  President  a  cordial  support  in 


DOUGLAS  SUSTAINS  LINCOLN.        297 

the  Secession  war  now  begun.  He  read  with  approval 
the  proclamation  already  prepared,  questioning  only  as 
to  the  number  of  men  called  for,  which  he  thought 
would  better  have  been  at  least  four  hundred  thousand. 
He  knew  the  South,  he  added,  and  that  the  war  was  to 
be  war  in  earnest — a  war  of  magnitude.  The  substance 
of  this  interview,  as  disclosed  by  Douglas  himself,  was 
telegraphed  to  the  country  next  morning,  with  com- 
manding effect  on  his  partisan  supporters. 

This  is  the  last  incident  to  be  recorded  in  the  long 
personal  intercourse  and  in  the  constantly  recurring 
relations  between  Abraham  Lincoln  and  Stephen  A. 
Douglas.  The  Senator's  proffer  of  service  —  warmly 
appreciated  and  gratefully  recognized  by  the  President 
— was  followed  up  manfully  in  speeches  and  letters  from 
this  day  onward.  One  of  the  most  eloquent  of  all  was 
his  speech  at  the  capital  of  Illinois.  Douglas  had  then 
not  many  weeks  to  live.  He  presently  returned  to  Chi- 
cago, where  he  was  prostrated  with  fever,  and  passed 
away  on  the  3d  day  of  June. 

The  crisis,  which  gave  unity  and  strength  in  the 
North,  brought  no  advantage  to  the  Union  side  in 
the  eight  Southern  States  that  had  hitherto  stood  out 
against  secession.  The  Virginia  convention  had  voted 
nearly  two  to  one  against  the  proposed  "  ordinance  " 
on  the  4th  of  April;  but  the  convention  tarried;  adverse 
influences  were  plainly  taking  effect;  the  Union  major- 
ity was  crumbling.  At  length,  after  it  was  known  in 
Richmond  that  the  Confederate  executive  had  deter- 
mined to  "'  reduce  "  Fort  Sumter  without  further  delay, 
a  committee  was  sent  by  the  convention  to  interrogate 
President  Lincoln  as  to  the  policy  he  meant  to  pursue 


298       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

towards  the  Confederate  States.  The  committee  had  an 
interview  with  the  President  on  Saturday,  April  13th  — 
cannon  at  the  moment  thundering  in  Charleston  harbor, 
or  not  yet  cooled  after  Anderson's  capitulation.  He 
gave  a  written  answer,  adhering  to  the  positions  of  his 
inaugural,  from  which  he  quoted  decisively,  and  the 
committee  returned  home  still  "dissatisfied." 

Wild  tumult  prevailed  at  Richmond  on  news  of  the 
capture  of  Fort  Sumter.  The  convention  wrapped  itself 
in  darkness,  holding  secret  sessions,  and  on  the  17th 
passed  an  ordinance  of  secession,  nominally  subject  to 
a  popular  vote  on  the  23d  of  May.  Regardless  of  a 
condition  now  so  unimportant,  there  were  hurried 
movements  to  seize  the  Government  works  and  armory 
at  Harper's  Ferry,  and  the  navy-yard,  stores,  guns,  and 
vessels  at  and  near  Norfolk,  before  the  action  of  the 
convention  should  become  publicly  known. 

On  the  25th  of  April,  Governor  Letcher  proclaimed 
the  adhesion  of  Virginia  to  the  Southern  Confederacy, 
under  a  compact  which  ignored  any  further  voting  the 
people  might  trouble  themselves  to  do  later.  Tennessee 
and  Arkansas  were  in  like  manner  provisionally  annexed 
by  their  disunionist  Governors  on  the  6th  of  May;  and 
North  Carolina  adopted  a  secession  ordinance  on  the 
20th.  Despite  the  madness  of  the  hour,  a  cordon  of 
slaveholding  States  stretching  across  the  country — Del- 
aware, Maryland,  Kentucky,  Missouri,  with  loyal  West 
Virginia,  soon  made  a  separate  State  —  still  remained 
on  the  Union  side. 

Addressing  a  joyfully  excited  crowd  at  Montgomery 
on  the  evening  of  April  12th,  the  Confederate  Secretary 
of  War  said: 


A  BELEAGUERED  CAPITAL.  299 

No  man  can  tell  when  the  war  commenced  this  day  will 
end ;  but  I  will  prophecy  that  the  flag  which  now  flaunts  the 
breeze  here  will  float  over  the  dome  of  the  old  capitol  at 
Washington  before  the  1st  of  May. 

How  Lincoln  regarded  his  own  relation  to  this 
beginning  appears  with  sufficient  clearness  from  a  letter 
of  approbation  and  confidence  addressed  by  him  (May 
1st)  to  Captain  Fox,  saying: 

I  sincerely  regret  that  the  failure  of  the  late  attempt  to 
provision  Fort  Sumter  should  be  the  source  of  any  annoy- 
ance to  you.  The  practicability  of  your  plan  was  not,  in 
fact,  brought  to  test.  By  reason  of  a  gale  well  known  in 
advance  to  be  possible,  and  not  improbable,  the  tugs,  an 
essential  part  of  the  plan,  never  reached  the  ground,  while, 
by  an  accident  for  which  you  were  in  no  wise  responsible 
and  possibly  I,  to  some  extent,  was,  you  were  deprived  of  a 
war  vessel,  with  her  men,  which  you  deemed  of  great  impor- 
tance to  the  enterprise.  .  .  .  You  and  I  both  anticipated 
that  the  cause  of  the  country  would  be  advanced  by  making 
the  attempt  to  provision  Fort  Sumter,  even  if  it  should  fail ; 
and  it  is  no  small  consolation  now  to  feel  that  our  anticipation 
is  justified  by  the  event. 

In  a  few  hours  after  he  received  the  call  for  troops, 
Governor  Andrew,  of  Massachusetts,  had  one  regiment 
of  militia,  the  Sixth,  at  its  rendezvous,  ready  for  depart- 
ure South.  Pennsylvania,  being  nearer,  first  had  a 
militia  battalion  at  the  national  capital.  From  New 
York  the  well  disciplined  Seventh  Regiment  was  about 
the  same  time  on  its  way.  Every  Northern  State  re- 
sponded with  promptness  and  energy.  In  the  loyal 
"  War  Governors "  President  Lincoln  ever  found  a 
quick  help  and  a  strong  stay. 

The  spirit  already  roused  was  intensified  by  the 
attacks  of  a  Baltimore  mob  on  the  Sixth  Massachusetts 


3oo       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

Regiment  while  passing  through  the  city.  Here  the 
first  blood  of  Union  soldiers  was  shed  on  the  memorable 
anniversary  of  Lexington  and  Concord,  April  19th.  A 
Pennsylvania  regiment  that  was  following,  on  reach- 
ing the  outer  railway  station,  turned  back  under  orders 
toward  Philadelphia,  the  mob  now  having  possession  of 
Baltimore.  The  Massachusetts  Sixth  had  meanwhile 
fought  its  way  through  the  city,  going  on  by  rail  to 
Washington. 

These  were  but  incidents  in  a  week  full  of  stirring 
events,  which  disclosed  a  fixed  purpose  and  concerted 
action  to  surround  and  isolate  the  capital;  to  gain  pos- 
session of  all  the  Federal  property  in  Virginia,  Mary- 
land, and  the  District  of  Columbia;  to  disperse  the  Gov- 
ernment; and  to  carry  the  rebellion  quite  to  the  north- 
ern limit  of  slavery.  On  the  eve  of  the  outbreak  in 
Baltimore,  secessionist  forces  were  on  their  way  to  seize 
Norfolk  and  Harper's  Ferry.  Trains  bearing  Union  sol- 
diers destined  for  Washington  were  stopped  by  disabled 
tracks  and  destroyed  bridges  on  every  railway  directly 
connecting  the  North  with  Baltimore,  from  which  point 
alone,  save  by  the  branch  from  Annapolis  —  the  west- 
ern line  by  way  of  the  intermediate  Relay  House  being 
broken  —  was  there  any  communication  by  rail  with 
Washington.  Intrenchments  were  thrown  up  on  the 
banks  of  the  Potomac  River,  below  the  city,  and 
mounted  with  guns,  to  cut  off  communication  by  water. 
Virginia  militia  were  pushed  forward  to  break  the  west- 
ern connections  by  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  railway  be- 
yond Harper's  Ferry.  Save  the  military  companies  of 
the  District  (some  non-residents  temporarily  there,  also 
organizing  as  volunteers)  and  the  small  force  of  regu- 


A  BELEAGUERED  CAPITAL.  301 

lars  and  marines,  the  only  troops  in  Washington  during 
this  anxious  and  critical  week  were:  the  Pennsylvania 
companies,  which  arrived  on  Tuesday  evening;  another 
battalion,  with  a  battery,  from  the  same  State,  which 
came  on  the  18th,  passing  through  Baltimore  that 
day;  and  the  Massachusetts  Sixth,  which  forced  its  way 
through  on  the  19th.  From  that  day  until  the  25th 
communication  with  the  outer  world  was  almost  wholly 
cut  off. 

Directly  after  the  secret  vote  for  secession  in  the 
convention  at  Richmond,  a  committee  of  Virginians  de- 
manded of  the  authorities  of  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio 
railway  a  pledge  that  no  Federal  soldiers  should  be 
transported  over  their  main  line,  or  any  of  the  muni- 
tions of  war  from  Harper's  Ferry,  threatening,  if  this 
were  refused,  to  blow  up  their  Potomac  bridge  at  that 
place.  Lieutenant  Jones,  in  charge  of  the  armory  and 
arsenal  there,  with  a  command  of  only  forty-five  men, 
was  apprised  of  the  near  approach  of  Virginia  militia, 
about  twenty-five  hundred  strong,  on  Thursday  evening 
(the  1 8th),  and,  after  prompt  measures  to  burn  the  Gov- 
ernment works  and  to  destroy  the  property  stored  there, 
including  fifteen  thousand  Springfield  muskets  (which 
were  not  rendered  completely  useless  to  their  captors), 
he  started  with  his  little  force  at  10  o'clock  that  night, 
by  the  shortest  route,  to  Chambersburg,  in  Pennsylvania. 
He  reached  Hagerstown  next  morning,  having  traveled 
thirty  miles;  and  news  of  the  taking  of  Harper's  Ferry 
fanned  the  excitement  in  Baltimore,  where,  for  a  week 
following,  the  mob,  swelled  by  large  numbers  of  des- 
perate men  from  other  places,  swayed  the  city  —  Seces- 
sionists cowing  Union  men,  and  finally  coercing  Gov- 


302       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

ernor  Hicks  into  protesting  against  the  passage  of  Fed- 
eral troops  through  the  city,  or  even  through  Maryland 
at  all,  to  the  national  capital,  surrounded  though  it  was 
on  every  side  by  either  Maryland  or  Virginia.  He  also 
yielded  to  the  demand  for  an  extra  session  of  the  Legis- 
lature —  which  he  had  hitherto  resolutely  refused  to 
call  —  fixing  the  26th  of  May  for  its  assembling. 

Matters  were  to  be  hurried  at  the  utmost  speed;  the 
ardor  was  at  its  height,  the  hour  auspicious;  not  a 
moment  must  be  lost.  The  Confederate  chief  dreamed 
that  his  Maryland  and  Virginia  braves  were  already 
leaping  in  wild  death  dance  around  the  fast-bound  and 
doomed  victim. 

On  the  day  after  the  Massachusetts  soldiers  were 
attacked  in  Baltimore,  a  committee  visited  the  Presi- 
dent on  behalf  of  Governor  Hicks  and  Mayor  Brown, 
with  representations  sufficiently  indicated  in  the  fol- 
lowing response,  addressed  to  those  officials: 

Gentlemen:  Your  letter  by  Messrs.  Bond,  Dobbin  and 
Brune  is  received.  I  tender  you  both  my  sincere  thanks  for 
your  efforts  to  keep  the  peace  in  the  trying  situation  in  which 
you  are  placed.  For  the  future,  troops  must  be  brought 
here,  but  I  make  no  point  of  bringing  them  through  Balti- 
more. Without  any  military  knowledge  myself,  of  course 
I  must  leave  details  to  General  Scott.  He  nastily  said  this 
morning,  in  the  presence  of  these  gentlemen,  "  March  them 
around  Baltimore,  and  not  through  it."  I  sincerely  hope 
the  General,  on  further  reflection,  will  consider  this  prac- 
ticable and  proper,  and  that  you  will  not  object  to  it.  By 
this  a  collision  of  the  people  of  Baltimore  with  the  troops 
will  be  avoided,  unless  they  go  out  of  the  way  to  seek  it. 
I  hope  you  will  exert  your  influence  to  prevent  this.  Now 
and  ever,  I  shall  do  all  in  my  power  for  peace,  consistently 
with  the  maintenance  of  the  Government. 


A  BELEAGUERED  CAPITAL.  303 

On  the  night  of  the  20th  the  President  telegraphed 
to  Governor  Hicks: 

I  desire  to  consult  with  you  and  the  Mayor  of  Baltimore 
relative  to  preserving  the  peace  in  Maryland.  Please  come 
immediately  by  special  train,  which  you  can  take  at  Balti- 
more, or,  if  necessary,  one  can  be  sent  from  hence.  Answer 
forthwith. 

Both  the  Governor  and  the  Mayor  had  issued  proc- 
lamations two  days  before  —  the  former  counseling 
against  any  "  rash  step,"  calling  on  the  people  "  to  obey 
the  laws  and  to  aid  the  constituted  authorities  in  their 
endeavors  to  preserve  the  fair  fame  of  our  State  untar- 
nished," and  assuring  them  "  that  no  troops  will  be 
sent  from  Maryland  unless  it  be  for  the  defense  of  the 
national  capital."  On  the  very  next  day  (the  19th) 
came  the  outbreak  deprecated  by  these  manifestoes. 
All  seemed  to  be  changed  as  in  a  moment;  even  the 
Governor  and  the  Mayor  were  at  least  getting  uncer- 
tain. The  Governor  not  being  in  the  city  on  the  morn- 
ing of  the  2 1st,  when  the  above  dispatch  was  received, 
the  Mayor  went  without  him,  and  had  a  protracted  in- 
terview with  the  President,  at  which  the  Cabinet  and  the 
Lieutenant-General  were  present.  Mr.  Brown,  as  re- 
ported by  himself  immediately  after,  told  the  President 
that  "  the  excitement  was  great"  in  Baltimore;  that 
"  the  people  of  all  classes  were  fully  aroused,  and  it  was 
impossible  for  any  one  to  answer  for  the  consequences 
of  the  presence  of  Northern  troops  anywhere  within  our 
borders."  The  President  "  frankly  acknowledged  this 
difficulty,  and  said  that  the  Government  would  only  ask 
the  city  authorities  to  use  their  best  efforts  with  respect 
to  those  under  their  jurisdiction.     The  interview  ter- 


3o4        LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

minated  with  the  distinct  assurance  on  the  part  of  the 
President  that  no  more  troops  would  be  sent  through 
Baltimore  unless  obstructed  in  their  transit  in  other 
directions,  and  with  the  understanding  that  the  city 
authorities  should  do  their  best  to  restrain  their  own 
people." 

This,  it  is  to  be  remembered,  is  the  version  of  Mr. 
Brown,  and  the  alleged  promise  of  the  President  mani- 
festly could  have  related  only  to  the  existing  emergency. 
But  the  Mayor  had  not  yet  left  Washington  when  news 
came  of  such  an  excitement  in  Baltimore  over  the  ap- 
proach of  troops  by  the  Northern  Central  Railway  (from 
the  Harrisburg  direction),  which  were  intended  to  be 
marched  from  Cockeysville  across  the  country  to  the 
Relay  House,  that  for  the  time  they  were  ordered  back 
to  Harrisburg.  Even  "  in  other  directions, "  any  transit 
through  Maryland,  it  appeared,  was  to  be  "  obstructed." 

Although  during  all  this  dark  week  the  President 
had  with  him  but  a  few  hundred  soldiers,  entirely  inad- 
equate even  for  the  protection  of  Washington,  to  say 
nothing  of  subjugating  rebellious  Baltimore  and  open- 
ing communications  northward  and  westward,  there 
began  to  be  mutterings  of  discontent  in  New  York  and 
elsewhere  because  all  these  things  had  not  been  done  at 
once  by  the  Government.  There  came  to  be  talk,  too, 
with  distortions  and  misconceptions  enough,  as  to  the 
interview  with  Mayor  Brown,  about  "negotiations"  be- 
tween the  Government  and  "Maryland  traitors."  How 
restive  many  people  were  becoming  in  the  later  of  these 
dubious  days  is  well  illustrated  by  the  letter  of  a  loyal 
New  York  millionaire  then  prominent  (George  Law), 
written  to  the  President  on  the  25th: 


A  BELEAGUERED  CAPITAL.  305 

The  people  of  the  free  States  [said  Mr.  Law]  have  now 
been  for  some  time  cut  off  from  communication  with  the 
capital  of  their  country  by  a  mob  in  the  city  of  Baltimore. 
.  .  .  All  facilities  by  mail  and  telegraph  have  been  cut 
off  by  the  same  unlawful  assemblage  in  Baltimore  and  other 
points  of  Maryland,  at  a  time  when  free  communication  is 
so.  much  required  between  the  free  States  and  Washington. 
The  public  mind  is  already  excited  to  the  highest  point  that 
this  state  of  things  has  been  so  long  tolerated;  ...  it  is 
demanded  of  the  Government  that  they  at  once  take  meas- 
ures to  open  and  establish  those  lines  of  communication,  and 
that  they  protect  and  preserve  them  from  any  further  in- 
terruption. Unless  this  is  done,  the  people  will  be  com- 
pelled to  take  it  into  their  own  hands,  let  the  consequences 
be  what  they  may,  and  let  them  fall  where  they  will. 

The  great  commercial  city  was  not  alone  in  feeling 
that  something  must  be  speedily  done.  Elsewhere,  and 
not  least  in  the  West,  it  was  a  common  sentiment: 
"  The  troops  must  go  through  Baltimore,  even  if  they 
have  to  march  over  the  ashes  of  the  city." 

While  the  people  of  New  York  City  were  astir,  and 
the  veteran  General  Wool  had  come  down  from  his  post 
at  Troy  to  do  anything  needed  of  him,  even  without 
orders,  the  authorities  at  Washington  had  been  using 
effective  methods  to  relieve  the  situation.  Secretary 
Cameron  had  managed  to  get  a  trusted  agent  through 
to  New  York,  clothed  with  some  extraordinary  powers, 
which  he  did  not  fail  to  use  (for  which  the  Secretary 
was  censured  afterward  by  Congress),  and  General  Scott 
was  contriving  to  open  up  a  way  from  the  North  to  the 
capital.  In  fact,  the  very  day  Mr.  Law  was  writing  so 
vigorously,  communication  was  successfully  restored, 
and  new  troops  were  arriving  in  Washington. 

The  Eighth  Regiment  of  Massachusetts  militia,  ac- 
companied by  General  B.  F.  Butler,  and  the  New  York 
20 


306        LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

Seventh  had  reached  Perryville,  on  the  Susquehanna, 
some  days  before.  Finding  further  transit  by  rail  im- 
practicable, Butler  had  availed  himself  of  the  railway 
company's  ferry-boat  there,  and  taken  his  men  thereon 
by  the  river  and  the  bay  to  Annapolis,  where  he  rjps- 
sessed  himself  of  the  old  ship  Constitution,  then  in  use 
at  the  Naval  Academy;  later  went  into  camp  on  shore, 
regardless  of  the  personal  protest  of  Governor  Hicks; 
sent  the  ferry-boat  back  for  more  troops  and  for  sup- 
plies, and  began  to  advance  along  the  line  of  the  Annap- 
olis Branch  railway,  of  which  the  track  had  been  torn 
up  and  the  locomotives  disabled.  Both  the  rails  and 
the  engines  were  put  in  order  as  rapidly  as  his  soldiers, 
including  many  skilled  machinists,  could  do  the  work, 
and  soon  trains  were  running  to  the  Junction  and  to 
Washington,  bearing  their  freight  of  Northern  legions, 
and  letting  in  full  daylight  on  the  darkness  of  the  capital 
city.  The  Seventh  Regiment  of  New  York  was  the  first 
to  arrive  there,  marching  in  its  beautiful  way  down 
Pennsylvania  Avenue,  to  the  delight  of  a  multitude  of 
welcoming  beholders.  Other  soldiers  came  with  little 
delay,  and  henceforward  at  will. 

The  severest  calamity  that  had  actually  befallen  the 
Government  during  this  time  was  in  the  losses  it  had 
suffered  at  Norfolk  and  Gosport.  Among  the  vessels 
there  were  the  steam  frigate  Merrimac,  forty  guns  — 
scuttled  by  the  commandant,  but  afterwards  raised  and 
made  into  a  formidable  iron-clad  by  the  Confederates; 
the  Cumberland,  in  which  the  officers  of  the  post  made 
their  escape;  the  Plymouth,  Raritan,  Germantown,  Co- 
lumbia, Dauphin,  the  old  three-decked  Pennsylvania, 
the  Delaware,  and  the  Columbus  —  the  last  two  being 


A  BELEAGUERED  CAPITAL.  307 

dismantled  seventy-fours.  There  were  also  two  or  three 
thousand  cannon,  as  estimated,  munitions,  stores,  tim- 
ber, and  other  valuable  property,  either  destroyed  or 
captured.  In  general,  the  destruction  aimed  at  was  far 
from  effectual.  The  actual  aggregate  cost  of  all  these 
classes  of  property,  in  time  of  peace,  was  reckoned  as 
high  as  ten  million  dollars.  Great  as  was  the  pecuniary 
sacrifice  here  — ■  in  comparison  with  which  that  at  Har- 
per's Ferry  was  but  slight  —  the  losses  in  both  cases 
were  enhanced  by  the  fact  that  these  war  materials  were 
pressingly  needed  and  could  not  be  readily  replaced. 

As  to  Norfolk  and  Gpsport  there  were,  very  natu- 
rally, complaints  of  culpable  neglect  or  mismanagement. 
The  officer  in  command  there,  Captain  McCauley,  was 
well  advanced  in  years,  and  without  judicial  inquiry  was 
directly  after  placed  on  the  retired  list.  Captain  Pauld- 
ing had  been  dispatched  from  Washington  with  the 
steam  frigate  Pawnee  to  that  post  on  the  19th,  with 
orders  to  supersede  McCauley.  Arriving  at  Old  Point 
Comfort  next  day,  he  took  four  hundred  and  fifty  Mas- 
sachusetts soldiers  on  board,  and  reached  Gosport  in 
the  evening.  Paulding  had  discretionary  powers,  but 
was  instructed  to  take  care,  at  all  events,  that  the  Gov- 
ernment property  in  that  quarter  should  not  fall  into 
the  hands  of  the  insurgents.  He  found  that  McCauley 
had  already  begun  the  work  of  destruction,  and  tried 
to  make  it  complete.  Without  awaiting  attack,  he 
departed  at  midnight,  his  retreating  course  being  illu- 
minated by  the  flames  of  ships  and  boats,  marine  bar- 
racks, storehouses,  and  other  combustible  materials  of 
the  abandoned  post,  of  which  the  enemy  took  prompt 
possession. 


3o8       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

Harper's  Ferry  was  occupied  by  Virginia  militia 
soon  after  the  retirement  of  Lieutenant  Jones.  There, 
as  at  Norfolk,  the  insurgents  saved  much  valuable  prop- 
erty. The  important  bridge  of  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio 
Railway  at  that  point  was  destroyed  by  them,  and  this 
great  western  thoroughfare  closed. 

Fortress  Monroe,  fortunately  secured  in  time,  was 
presently  further  reinforced  by  the  arrival  of  the  First 
Vermont  Regiment,  under  Colonel  J.  W.  Phelps. 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 
1 86*. 

Taking  Up  the  Burden  of  War. 

On  the  very  day,  as  it  happened,  that  Washington 
was  isolated  by  the  Baltimore  outbreak,  the  President 
proclaimed  a  blockade  of  the  insurgent  ports.  Whether 
blockade  or  embargo  were  better  was  discussed  in  Cabi- 
net. Did  not  declaring  a  blockade  under  the  war  power 
of  the  Government  involve  a  concession  of  belligerent 
rights  to  the  Confederates?  Secretary  Welles,  whose 
department  was  charged  with  executing  the  great  un- 
dertaking, favored  an  embargo.  Secretary  Seward,  to 
whom  the  matter  belonged  in  its  foreign  relations, 
believed  a  blockade  would  involve  fewer  complications, 
and  that  British  construction  would  deny  the  right  of 
a  government  to  close  any  port  not  in  its  actual  pos- 
session. To  maintain  a  blockade  of  the  extent  pro- 
claimed would  require  a  large  and  effective  naval  force; 
but  in  this  respect  the  embargo,  which  avoided  some 
seeming  inconsistencies,  would  have  little  advantage, 
and  to  gain  and  keep  actual  possession  of  all  the  South- 
ern ports  was  at  present  out  of  the  question.  The 
President  appears  to  have  agreed  with  Mr.  Seward  from 
the  first. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  War  of  1812,  Jefferson  wrote 
privately  (June  28th)  to  President  Madison:    "Upon 

(309) 


310       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

the  whole,  I  have  known  no  war  declared  under  more 
favorable  circumstances."  He  confidently  expected  the 
prompt  conquest  of  Canada  and  an  early  peace.  On 
the  6th  of  February  following,  after  disasters  and  mor- 
tifications, he  wrote  to  Madison  of  the  events  of  the  war: 

Our  first  entrance  on  them  has  been  peculiarly  inauspi- 
cious. Our  men  were  good,  but  force  without  conduct  is 
easily  baffled.  The  Creator  has  not  thought  proper  to  mark 
those  on  the  forehead  who  are  of  stuff  to  make  good  Gen- 
erals. We  are  first,  therefore,  to  seek  them  blindfold,  and 
then  let  them  learn  the  trade  at  the  expense  of  losses 

President  Lincoln,  at  the  beginning  of  a  great  war,l 
had  at  his  side  a  veteran  commander  famous  in  both' 
hemispheres.  Secretary  Chase  justly  declared  that  Gen- 
eral Winfield  Scott  was  "  venerated  "  by  the  Ameri- 
can people.  The  South  would  have  deemed  it  victory, 
itself  to  gain  the  grand  old  Virginian  as  their  leader  in 
arms.  But  the  Lieutenant-General  was  as  unhesitating 
and  as  faithful  now  as  when,  thirty  years  earlier,  he 
aided  in  putting  down  the  first  outbreak  of  disunion  in 
South  Carolina.  The  very  name  of  Winfield  Scott  was' 
assuring. 

Aside  from  the  blockade,  which  was  deemed  of  prime 
moment,  two  objects  required  immediate  care.  First, 
to  hold  the  national  capital,  confidently  claimed  by  the 
Confederate  press  and  orating  leaders  as  a  speedy  prey; 
and,  secondly,  to  re-possess  Federal  forts  and  property 
already  captured  by  the  seceding  authorities.  Military 
and  naval  preparations  for  these  ends  were  pushed  with 
such  rapidity  as  the  conditions  permitted.  The  late 
Adjutant-General  Cooper  and  Brigadier-General  Lee  — 
in  whom  Scott  had  specially  confided  —  had  at  the  last 


TAKING  UP  THE  BURDEN.  311 

moment  gone  over  to  the  Confederate  side,  carrying 
with  them  all  the  knowledge  of  affairs  implied  by  their 
late  positions.  Other  defections,  less  conspicuous,  from 
the  surrender  of  General  Twiggs  downward,  had  thinned 
the  army  service  and  made  many  new  appointments 
and  assignments  necessary.  Commander  Buchanan,  in 
charge  of  the  navy-yard,  like  Captain  J.  B.  Magruder, 
of  the  army,  whose  battery  was  in  evidence  on  inaugura- 
tion day,  both  joined  the  Confederates.  So  did  many 
naval  officers  of  rank,  though  they  surrendered  no  ves- 
sels or  property  confided  to  them.  The  departments  of 
Washington,  under  General  Joseph  K.  F.  Mansfield;  of 
Annapolis,  under  General  B.  F.  Butler  (headquarters  at 
Bladensburg),  and  of  Pennsylvania  (including  that  State 
and  Delaware),  under  General  Robert  Patterson,  were 
announced  on  the  27th  of  April.  A  fourth  department 
was  added  on  the  10th  of  May,  consisting  of  the  States 
of  Ohio,  Indiana  and  Illinois,  under  General  George  B. 
McClellan,  with  headquarters  at  Cincinnati. 

In  his  message  to  the  Confederate  Congress,  which 
met  at  Montgomery  on  the  29th  of  April,  Mr.  Davis 
announced  his  purpose  of  issuing  letters  of  marque  and 
reprisal,  and  predicted  that  before  many  weeks  "  the 
whole  of  the  slaveholding  States  of  the  late  Union  will 
respond  to  the  call  of  honor  and  affection,  and,  by 
uniting  their  fortunes  with  ours,  promote  our  common 
interests  and  secure  our  common  safety."  He  gives 
the  number  of  Confederate  troops  "  now  in  the  field 
at  Charleston,  Pensacola,  Forts  Morgan,  Jackson,  St. 
Philip,  and  Pulaski  "  as  nineteen  thousand;  "  while  there 
are  sixteen  thousand  more  now  en  route  for  Virginia;" 
states  his  purpose  to  organize  "  an  army  of  one  hun- 


3i2        LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

dred  thousand  men,"  and  adds  that  volunteers  "  are 
constantly  tendering  their  services  far  in  excess  of  our 
wants."  He  had,  in  fact,  issued  a  call  for  one  hundred 
thousand  men  two  days  after  Lincoln's  inauguration. 
In  this  message  occur  the  familiar  words,  so  applicable 
to  many  troublous  situations:  "All  we  ask  is,  to  be  let 
alone." 

On  the  3d  of  May,  President  Lincoln  called  for 
forty-two  thousand  soldiers  to  serve  for  three  years,  if 
required,  and  for  eighteen  thousand  men  for  the  navy; 
and  invited  enlistments  to  fill  up  eight  regiments  of 
infantry,  one  of  cavalry,  and  one  of  artillery,  for  the  reg- 
ular army.  More  than  the  specified  number  responded 
to  this  second  call,  which  Congress  was  trusted  to 
sustain  and  legalize. 

The  storm  which  had  for  many  days  so  furiously 
raged  in  Baltimore,  and  which  seemed  on  a  sudden  to 
have  swept  over  all  Maryland,  leaving  scarcely  any  vis- 
ible traces  of  Unionism,  began  to  lull  after  a  way  for 
Government  troops  was  opened  through  the  State,  and 
regiment  after  regiment  continued  to  pour  into  Wash- 
ington. Governor  Hicks,  in  his  message  of  April  27th 
to  the  Legislature  (convened  at  Frederick),  pointed  out 
the  deplorable  condition  of  Maryland  if  made  the  seat 
of  war,  and  counseled  "  neutrality."  A  reaction  was 
beginning  to  set  in;  the  Union  men  were  regaining  their 
self-possession;  and  even  in  Baltimore  a  large  Union 
meeting  was  held  on  the  night  of  the  4th  of  May.  On 
the  day  following,  General  Butler  advanced  two  regi- 
ments from  Annapolis  Junction  —  which  he  had  firmly 
held  for  the  last  ten  days  —  to  the  Relay  House.  On 
the  same  day  a  committee  of  the  Maryland  Legislature 


TAKING  UP  THE  BURDEN.  313 

waited  on  the  President,  asking  that  Baltimore  be  spared 
the  evils  of  military  occupation,  and  deprecating  chas- 
tisement for  the  late  offenses.  In  reply  he  gave  no 
other  assurance  than  that  the  public  interests,  and  not 
any  spirit  of  revenge,  would  determine  his  measures. 
Four  days  later  a  body  of  troops  about  three  thousand 
strong,  transported  by  steamers  from  Perryville,  landed 
at  Locust  Point,  in  Baltimore;  the  railway  from  the  city 
to  the  Relay  House  was  promptly  reopened;  the  rail  and 
wire  communications  with  Washington,  Harrisburg  and 
Philadelphia  were  restored;  and  the  city  of  Baltimore 
(on  the  13th)  was  securely  occupied.  On  the  next 
day  Governor  Hicks  issued  a  call  for  four  regiments  of 
volunteers  for  the  Federal  service. 

General  Robert  E.  Lee  was  put  in  command  of  the 
*  forces  of  the  Confederate  States  in  Virginia  "  on  the 
10th  of  May.  General  George  B.  McClellan  was  at  the 
same  date  commissioned  by  President  Lincoln  as  a 
Major-General  of  the  regular  army,  Both  these  com- 
manders, soon  to  find  a  field  in  West  Virginia,  were 
graduates  of  West  Point,  and  had  served  in  Mexico. 
Lee  resided  on  the  Custis  estate,  "Arlington  Heights," 
across  the  Potomac,  opposite  Washington.  The  Presi- 
dent, highly  estimating  Lee's  capacity,  was  ready  to  pro- 
mote him  to  be  virtual  head  of  the  army  in  the  field;  but, 
much  to  the  disappointment  of  Scott,  his  favorite  chose 
to  fight  on  the  other  side,  "  following  his  State."  Gen- 
eral McClellan,  a  native  of  Philadelphia,  son  of  a  distin- 
guished surgeon,  had,  after  graduation  at  West  Point, 
served  as  an  engineer  officer  under  Scott  in  Mexico;  and 
under  the  Pierce  administration  had  been  sent  abroad  — 
on  "holiday  service" — to  observe  the  armies  and  opera- 


3H       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

tions  of  the  Crimean  War.  Soon  after  returning  from 
Europe  and  completing  his  report,  he  resigned  his  com- 
mission as  captain,  and  became  a  railroad  superintend- 
ent. As  such  he  was  living  in  Cincinnati  when  appointed 
Major-General. 

On  the  same  ioth  of  May,  Nathaniel  Lyon  —  a 
native  of  Connecticut,  a  graduate  of  West  Point,  and 
a  captain  in  the  regular  army  —  struck  a  signal  blow 
in  St.  Louis.  Though  the  people  of  Missouri  had 
voted  down  secession,  their  Governor,  Claiborne  F. 
Jackson,  like  the  Governors  of  North  Carolina  and  Ten- 
nessee, tried  to  swing  his  State  into  the  Confederate  cur- 
rent. He  was  prevented  from  seizing  the  Government 
arsenal  and  its  large  supply  of  arms  by  the  prompt  action 
of  Lyon,  co-operating  with  F.  P.  Blair,  Jr.,  and  other 
Union  leaders,  in  removing  the  arms  to  the  Illinois  side 
of  the  river,  and  in  breaking  up  a  secession  camp  then 
forming  in  St.  Louis.  Next  day  the  veteran  General 
Harney,  commander  of  the  department,  returned,  after 
an  absence  from  his  post,  and  one  of  his  first  acts  was 
to  enter  into  an  agreement  with  General  Sterling  Price, 
the  Governor's  militia  chief,  by  which  the  latter  was  to 
have  the  whole  responsibility  of  maintaining  order,  while 
Harney  was  to  make  no  military  movement  and  to 
avoid  every  act  tending  to  produce  jealousy  and  excite- 
ment. This  compact  was  overruled  at  Washington,  and 
Harney  was  superseded  by  Lyon,  under  whom  a  force 
was  organized  for  active  work.  The  will  of  the  Presi- 
dent was  manifested  in  these  proceedings  rather  than 
that  of  the  Lieutenant-General,  who  was  thought  by  his 
critics  to  have  preferred  the  easy  moderation  of  Harney 
to  the  impulsive  zeal  of  Lyon. 


TAKING  UP  THE  BURDEN.  315 

On  the  24th  of  May  —  the  day  after  the  ceremony 
of  ratifying  secession  had  been  performed  in  Virginia  — 
part  of  General  Mansfield's  force  was  sent  across  the 
Potomac  to  occupy  Arlington  Heights  and  Alexandria. 
Before  this  date  the  country  immediately  south  of  these 
points  was  little  known  to  the  military  authorities  in 
Washington.  For  weeks  a  Confederate  flag  flying 
from  a  housetop  in  Alexandria  had  been  visible  from 
the  White  House.  There  had  been  little  restriction  on 
intercourse  with  the  South  in  general,  except  on  that 
side,  where  there  was  no  real  security  to  Union  men, 
either  Northern  or  native.  The  debts  due  from  South- 
ern to  Northern  business  men  —  many  millions  in  total 
amount — had  been  expressly  repudiated;  trade  between 
the  two  sections  had  been  suspended;  the  lower  Missis- 
sippi River  was  no  longer  free;  and  the  old  relations  of 
superficial  amity  were  at  an  end.  Yet  for  disunionists 
coming  north  there  was  hitherto  no  danger  or  difficulty. 
The  special  employment  of  spies  by  the  Confederates 
would  have  been  quite  superfluous.  Of  course  this 
leniency,  not  to  say  laxness,  must  not  last  always. 
Lines  were  now  to  be  drawn. 

The  movement  across  the  Potomac  was  executed 
without  resistance.  The  only  casualty  of  note  attend- 
ing it  was  occasioned  by  the  ardor  of  Colonel  Ellsworth, 
whose  regiment  of  Zouaves,  enlisted  in  New  York  City, 
was  among  the  first  of  the  troops  to  land  at  Alexan- 
dria. With  his  own  hand  Ellsworth  pulled  down  the 
flag  which  had  so  long  defiantly  floated  above  the  Mar- 
shall House;  whereupon,  as  he  descended  from  the  roof, 
he  was  shot  dead  on  the  stairway  by  the  hotel  proprie- 
tor, who  was  himself  at  once  killed  by  a  sergeant  accom- 


316       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

panying  Ellsworth.  The  loss  of  this  officer,  one  of  the 
party  accompanying  Lincoln  from  Illinois,  and  the  first 
of  his  rank  to  fall  in  this  war,  profoundly  affected  the 
President,  who,  with  Mrs.  Lincoln,  met  the  lifeless  sol- 
dier at  the  navy-yard,  brought  there  on  the  vessel  which 
carried  him  with  his  men  to  Alexandria  in  the  morn- 
ing. The  body  was  taken  to  the  Executive  mansion, 
and,  after  funeral  honors,  was  sent  to  his  early  home 
near  Troy,  New  York,  for  burial.  The  President  said 
in  a  letter  to  Ellsworth's  parents  (May  25th):  "  In  the 
untimely  loss  of  your  noble  son,  our  affliction  here  is 
scarcely  less  than  your  own.  ...  In  size,  in  years, 
and  in  youthful  appearance  a  boy  only,  his  power  to 
command  men  was  surpassingly  great.  This  power, 
combined  with  a  fine  intellect,  an  indomitable  energy, 
and  a  taste  altogether  military,  constituted  in  him  the 
best  natural  talent  in  that  department  I  ever  knew." 

Two  days  after  the  occupation  of  the  south  bank  of 
the  Potomac  the  postal  service  was  suspended  in  the 
seceding  States,  except  in  Tennessee  and  West  Virginia. 
To  support  the  Unionists  in  the  latter  quarter,  a  force 
had  been  gathering  under  General  McClellan,  who,  from 
his  headquarters  in  Cincinnati,  on  the  day  of  the  Alex- 
andria movement,  issued  his  order  for  an  advance  into 
Virginia  from  the  west.  Colonel  B.  F.  Kelley  set  for- 
ward with  his  regiment,  the  First  Virginia,  from  Bel- 
laire,  and  Colonel  J.  B.  Steedman,  with  the  Fourteenth 
Ohio,  from  Parkersburg,  along  the  two  branches  of  the 
Baltimore  and  Ohio  Railway  respectively,  towards  their 
junction  at  Grafton.  Other  regiments  followed,  all  con- 
centrating at  that  point  unopposed.  On  the  2d  of  June 
a  detachment  led  by  Colonel  Dumont,  of  Indiana,  sur- 


TAKING  UP  THE  BURDEN.  317 

prised  and  broke  up  a  hostile  camp  several  miles  south- 
ward, at  Philippi.  A  proclamation  issued  from  head- 
quarters at  Grafton  called  upon  the  people  to  arm  for 
their  protection  and  for  the  support  of  the  constitutional 
government;  and  a  convention  of  loyal  Virginians  at 
Wheeling,  on  the  17th  of  June,  formally  repudiated  the 
Richmond  Secession  ordinance.  The  convention  also 
declared  vacant  all  offices  the  incumbents  of  which  had 
sustained  the  action  of  Governor  Letcher  and  the  Seces- 
sion authorities,  whether  such  officers  were  executive, 
legislative,  or  judicial.  A  provisional  State  government 
was  at  once  organized,  with  Francis  H.  Pierpont  for 
Governor.  As  soon  as  practicable,  a  State  Legislature 
was  chosen  by  the  Union  people,  and  United  States  Sen- 
ators were  chosen  to  fill  the  seats  vacated  by  Messrs. 
Hunter  and  Mason.  Elections  were  also  held  for  Rep- 
resentatives in  Congress  in  all  the  Virginia  districts  in 
which  Union  men  had  opportunity  to  vote.  The  gov- 
ernment thus  organized — the  earliest  precedent  in  "re- 
construction "  —  was  in  due  time  recognized  by  the 
President  and  by  Congress  as  the  legitimate  State 
government  of  Virginia. 

On  the  first  advance  of  his  troops  into  Western  Vir- 
ginia, General  McClellan  had  issued  a  proclamation,  in 
which  he  said:  "  Notwithstanding  all  that  has  been  said 
by  the  traitors  to  induce  you  to  believe  that  our  advent 
among  you  will  be  signalized  by  interference  with  your 
slaves,  understand  one  thing  clearly  —  not  only  will  we 
abstain  from  all  such  interference,  but  we  will,  on  the 
contrary,  with  an  iron  hand,  crush  any  attempt  at  insur- 
rection on  their  part."  On  taking  the  field  in  person, 
he  said  in  another  manifesto,  dated  June  23d,  that  his 


318       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

command,  "  headed  by  Virginia  troops,"  was  "  rapidly 
occupying  all  Western  Virginia,"  and  added:  "Your 
houses,  families,  property,  and  all  your  rights  will  be 
religiously  respected.  .  .  .  We  have  come  to  save, 
not  to  upturn." 

In  pushing  back  towards  the  mountains  the  forces 
that  had  been  gathering  in  his  front,  McClellan  came 
into  collision  with  the  enemy  at  Laurel  Hill  on  the  ioth 
of  July,  and  again  at  Rich  Mountain  on  the  12th.  The 
numbers  in  the  field  on  either  side  were  not  very  con- 
siderable, and  the  nature  of  the  ground  was  unfavor- 
able for  fighting  on  a  large  scale.  The  insurgents  were 
beaten;  many  of  them,  with  their  immediate  commander, 
Colonel  Pegram,  were  captured.  Those  who  escaped 
were  pursued  as  far  as  Carrick's  Ford,  where,  attempt- 
ing to  make  a  stand,  their  chief  commander,  General 
Garnett,  and  a  number  of  his  men  were  killed,  and  the 
rout  was  complete.  The  victorious  General  sent  to  the 
War  Department  this  inspiriting  bulletin: 

General  Garnett  and  his  forces  have  been  routed,  and 
his  baggage  and  one  gun  taken.  His  army  is  completely  de- 
moralized. General  Garnett  was  killed  while  attempting  to 
rally  his  forces  at  Carrick's  Ford,  near  St.  George. 

We  have  completely  annihilated  the  enemy  in  Western 
Virginia. 

Our  loss  is  but  thirteen  killed  and  not  more  than  forty 
wounded,  while  the  enemy's  loss  is  not  far  from  two  hun- 
dred killed,  and  the  number  of  prisoners  we  have  taken  will 
amount  to  at  least  one  thousand.  We  have  captured  seven 
of  the  enemy's  guns  in  all.    .    .    . 

Our  success  is  complete,  and  I  firmly  believe  that  seces- 
sion is  killed  in  this  section  of  the  country. 

There  were,  meanwhile,  active  movements  under 
General  Lyon  in  Missouri.     On  the  12th  of  June,  Gov- 


TAKING  UP  THE  BURDEN.  319 

ernor  Jackson  had  called  for  fifty  thousand  miiltia  to 
repel  "invasion."  After  the  breaking  up  of  his  camp  at 
St.  Louis  (May  10th),  he  had  begun  to  organize  an  army 
at  the  State  Capital,  Jefferson  City.  Lyon  approaching 
him  with  such  small  force  as  was  now  at  his  disposal, 
Jackson  withdrew  on  the  14th,  and  Lyon  occupied  the 
town.  Learning  that  General  Sterling  Price,  whom  the 
Governor  had  joined,  was  preparing  to  make  a  stand  at 
Booneville,  Lyon  advanced,  engaged  the  enemy  there, 
and  routed  him.  The  Unionists  immediately  set  about 
reorganizing  the  State  government,  through  a  State 
convention,  and  the  close  of  July  found  Hamilton  R. 
Gamble  installed  as  Governor. 

East  of  the  Alleghany  Mountains  events  had  been 
less  lively.  Mansfield's  command  south  of  the  Potomac 
had  at  once  begun  fortifying  the  approaches  to  the  cap- 
ital by  the  Aqueduct  bridge  at  Georgetown  and  by  the 
Long  bridge  at  Washington,  while  earthworks  were 
thrown  up  for  the  protection  of  Alexandria.  On  the 
27th  of  May,  General  Irvin  McDowell  was  put  in  com- 
mand of  the  new  Department  of  Northwestern  Vir- 
ginia, with  headquarters  at  Arlington  Heights.  Mans- 
field retaining  command  in  the  District  of  Columbia. 

Eresh  regiments,  as  they  continued  to  arrive,  were 
sent  into  camps  of  instruction  near  by,  on  either  side 
of  the  river.  All  through  the  month  of  June  and  well 
on  into  July  the  Union  lines  had  been  but  slightly 
extended  into  Virginia  —  scarcely  more,  in  fact,  than 
was  necessary  to  find  convenient  camping-ground.  A 
Confederate  force  under  General  Beauregard  had  early 
taken  possession  of  Manassas  Junction,  less  than  thirty 


32o       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

miles  distant,  threatening  Washington,  either  directly 
or  through  an  invasion  of  Maryland.  At  Manassas  the 
enemy  was  nearer  both  to  Harper's  Ferry  and  to  Acquia 
Creek  than  was  the  army  at  Washington;  and  his  posi- 
tion had  the  further  advantage  of  commanding  the  rail- 
way communications  with  the  Shenandoah  Valley,  a 
region  rich  in  agricultural  productions  and  live  stock, 
and  opening  across  the  Potomac  into  Maryland  and 
Pennsylvania.  In  this  valley,  too,  the  Confederates  had 
a  force  under  General  Joseph  E.  Johnston  so  placed  as 
to  be  either  in  the  advance,  sustained  by  Beauregard,  in 
a  movement  into  Maryland  across  the  Potomac  above, 
or  to  be  a  support  for  the  latter  should  he  move  directly 
on  Washington  by  Centreville,  or  through  Maryland  by 
the  lower  Potomac,  where  there  was  a  smaller  force 
under  General  Holmes  at  Acquia  Creek.  This  double 
or  triple  menace  kept  the  Union  forces  divided,  under 
McDowell  and  Patterson,  who  were  in  much  less 
ready  communication  with  each  other  than  were  their 
adversaries. 

General  Patterson  took  up  his  headquarters  at 
Chambersburg,  on  the  Pennsylvania  side,  and  on  the 
3d  of  June  issued  an  address  to  his  soldiers,  in  which 
he  said  they  would  "  soon  meet  the  insurgents,"  and 
must  bear  in  mind  that  while  it  was  their  duty  to  punish 
sedition,  they  "  must  protect  the  loyal,  and,  should  the 
occasion  ofTer,  at  once  suppress  servile  insurrection.,, 
Little  was  heard  of  this  army,  however,  for  weeks, 
except  news  of  a  skirmish  at  Falling  Waters  (July  2d), 
while  on  the  move  from  Chambersburg  southward  to. 
cross  by  Williamsport  to  Harper's  Ferry. 


PRESIDENT  AND  CONGRESS.  321 

General  B.  F.  Butler  was  appointed  a  Major-General 
of  volunteers  on  the  16th  of  May,  and  assigned  to  the 
command  of  a  new  military  department,  which  included 
parts  of  Southeastern  Virginia  and  the  States  of  North 
and  South  Carolina.  Transferring  his  command  at  Bal- 
timore to  General  N.  P.  Banks,  recently  raised  to  the 
same  rank,  Butler  reached  his  new  headquarters  at  Fort- 
ress Monroe  on  the  22d.  In  this  quarter,  on  the  Con- 
federate side,  there  were  forces  under  General  John  B. 
Magruder  and  General  Benjamin  Huger  —  both  lately 
of  the  regular  army  —  occupying  Yorktown  and  Nor- 
folk. A  small  force  sent  toward  Yorktown  from  Fort- 
ress Monroe  in  the  night-time  (June  10th)  met  with  a 
bloody  repulse  at  Big  Bethel  —  an  affair  of  little  mili- 
tary consequence,  but  much  deplored  for  brave  lives 
needlessly  sacrificed. 

The  special  elections  in  Maryland  and  Kentucky 
late  in  June  resulted  in  the  choice  of  a  nearly  unani- 
mous Union  delegation  to  Congress  from  each  —  five 
to  one  in  the  former  and  nine  to  one  in  the  latter.  The 
popular  vote  in  Kentucky  aggregated  over  ninety-two 
thousand  for  the  Union  against  less  than  thirty-seven 
thousand  for  secession. 

Congress  met  on  the  4th  of  July,  pursuant  to  the 
President's  call.  Galusha  A.  Grow,  of  Pennsylvania,  was 
chosen  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  and 
ex-Representative  Emerson  Etheridge,  of  Tennessee, 
Clerk. 

In  his  message  Lincoln  concisely  stated  the  condi- 
tion of  national  affairs  at  the  beginning  of  his  official 
service  and  since;  reviewed  the  whole  question  of  seces- 
sion, and  placed  the  responsibility  for  the  war,  in  its 
21 


322        LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

actual  inception,  upon  the  insurgents,  whom  he  had  not 
assailed  by  force  or  menace,  or  given  any  pretext  for 
resorting  to  arms  against  the  Government.  The  policy 
he  chose  "looked  to  the  exhaustion  of  all  peaceful  meas- 
ures before  a  resort  to  any  stronger  ones."  The  assault 
upon  Fort  Sumter  was  in  no  sense  a  matter  of  self- 
defense,  for  the  assailants  well  knew  that  "  the  garrison 
in  the  fort  could  by  no  possibility  commit  aggression 
upon  them,"  and  that  the  Government  desired  "  merely 
to  maintain  visible  possession,  and  thus  to  preserve  the 
Union  from  actual  and  immediate  dissolution,"  trusting 
to  "  time,  discussion,  and  the  ballot-box  for  final  adjust- 
ment; and  they  assailed  and  reduced  the  fort  for  pre- 
cisely the  reverse  object,  to  drive  out  the  visible  author- 
ity of  the  Federal  Union,  thus  forcing  it  to  immediate 
dissolution.  The  issue  thus  forced  upon  the  country  — 
immediate  dissolution  or  blood  —  embraces  more  than 
the  fate  ,of  these  United  States: 

It  presents  to  the  whole  family  of  man  the  question 
whether  a  Constitutional  Republic  or  Democracy,  a  gov- 
ernment of  the  people  by  the  same  people,  can  or  can  not 
maintain  its  territorial  integrity  against  its  own  domestic 
foes.  It  presents  the  question  whether  discontented  indi- 
viduals, too  few  in  numbers  to  control  the  administration 
according  to  the  organic  law  in  any  case,  can  always,  upon 
the  pretenses  made  in  this  case,  or  any  other  pretenses,  or 
arbitrarily  without  any  pretense,  break  up  their  Government, 
and  thus  practically  put  an  end  to  free  government  upon 
the  earth.  It  forces  us  to  ask,  "  Is  there  in  all  Republics 
this  inherent  and  fatal  weakness?"  Must  a  government  of 
necessity  be  too  strong  for  the  liberties  of  its  own  people, 
or  too  weak  to  maintain  its  own  existence  ?  So  viewing  the 
issue,  no  choice  was  left  but  to  call  out  the  war  power  of 
the  Government,  and  so  to  resist  the  force  employed  for 
its  destruction  by  force  for  its  preservation.     The  call  was 


PRESIDENT  AND  CONGRESS.  323 

made,  and  the  response  of  the  country  was  most  gratifying', 
surpassing  in  unanimity  and  spirit  the  most  sanguine  ex- 
pectations. Yet  none  of  the  States  commonly  called  slave 
States,  except  Delaware,  gave  a  regiment  through  regular 
organization.    .    .    . 

The  border  States,  so-called,  were  not  uniform  in  their 
action,  some  of  them  being  almost  for  the  Union,  while  in 
others,  as  in  Virginia,  North  Carolina,  Tennessee  and  Ar- 
kansas, the  Union  sentiment  was  nearly  repressed  and 
silenced.  The  course  taken  in  Virginia  was  the  most  re- 
markable, perhaps  the  most  important.  A  convention, 
elected  by  the  people  of  that  State  to  consider  this  very  ques- 
tion of  disrupting  the  Federal  Union,  was  in  session  at  the 
capital  of  Virginia  when  Fort  Sumter  fell.  To  this  body 
the  people  had  chosen  a  large  majority  of  professed  Union 
men.  Almost  immediately  after  the  fall  of  Sumter  many 
members  of  that  majority  went  over  to  the  original  dis- 
union minority,  and  with  them  adopted  an  ordinance  for 
withdrawing  the  State  from  the  Union.  Whether  this 
change  was  wrought  by  their  great  approval  of  the  assault 
upon  Sumter,  or  their  great  resentment  at  the  Government's 
resistance  to  that  assault,  is  not  definitely  known.  .  .  . 
They  formally  entered  into  a  treaty  of  temporary  alliance 
with  the  so-called  Confederate  States,  and  sent  members  to 
their  Congress  at  Montgomery,  and  finally  they  permitted  the 
insurrectionary  government  to  be  transferred  to  the  capitol 
at  Richmond.  The  people  of  Virginia  nave  thus  allowed 
this  giant  insurrection  to  make  its  nest  within  her  borders, 
and  this  Government  has  no  choice  left  but  to  deal  with  it 
where  it  finds  it,  and  it  has  the  less  to  regret  as  the  loyal 
citizens  have,  in  due  form,  claimed  its  protection.  Those 
loyal  citizens  this  Government  is  bound  to  recognize  and 
protect  as  being  Virginia.    .    .    . 

It  is  now  recommended  that  you  give  the  legal  means 
for  making  this  contest  a  short  and  decisive  one ;  that  you 
place  at  the  control  of  the  Government  for  the  work  at  least 
400,000  men  and  $400,000,000.  .  .  .  One  of  the  greatest 
perplexities  of  the  Government  is  to  avoid  receiving  troops 
faster  than  it  can  provide  for  them ;  in  a  word,  the  people 
will  save  their  Government  if  the  Government  will  do  its 
part  only  indifferently  well.    .    .    . 


324       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

It  might  seem  at  first  thought  to  be  of  little  difference 
whether  the  present  movement  at  the  South  be  called  seces- 
sion or  rebellion.  The  movers,  however,  well  understand 
the  difference.  .  .  .  The  sophism  itself  is  that  any  State 
of  the  Union  may,  consistently  with  the  Nation's  Constitu- 
tion, and  therefore  lawfully  and  peacefully,  withdraw  from 
the  Union  without  the  consent  of  the  Union  or  of  any  other 
State.  .  .  .  With  rebellion  thus  sugar-coated,  they  have 
been  drugging  the  public  mind  of  their  section  for  more 
than  thirty  years,  and  until  at  length  they  have  brought  many 
good  men  to  a  willingness  to  take  up  arms  against  the  Gov- 
ernment the  day  after  some  assemblage  of  men  have  enacted 
the  farcical  pretense  of  taking  their  State  out  of  the  Union, 
who  could  have  been  brought  to  no  such  thing  the  day  be- 
fore. .  .  .  This  is  essentially  a  people's  contest.  On  the 
side  of  the  Union  it  is  a  struggle  for  maintaining  in  the 
world  that  form  and  substance  of  government  whose  lead- 
ing object  it  is  to  elevate  the  condition  of  men,  to  lift  artificial 
weights  from  all  shoulders,  to  clear  the  paths  of  laudable 
pursuit  for  all,  to  afford  all  an  unfettered  start  and  a  fair 
chance  in  the  race  of  life.  Yielding  to  partial  and  temporary 
departures,  from  necessity,  this  is  the  leading  object  of  the 
Government  for  whose  existence  we  contend.  I  am  most 
happy  to  believe  that  the  plain  people  understand  and  appre- 
ciate this.  It  is  worthy  of  note  that  while  in  this,  the  Gov- 
ernment's hour  of  trial,  large  numbers  of  those  in  the  army 
and  navy  who  have  been  favored  with  the  offices,  have  re- 
signed and  proved  false  to  the  hand  which  had  pampered 
them,  not  one  common  soldier  or  common  sailor  is  known 
to  have  deserted  his  flag.  .  .  .  This  is  the  patriotic  instinct 
of  plain  people.  They  understand  without  an  argument  that 
destroying  the  Government  which  was  made  by  Washington 
means  no  good  to  them.    .    .    . 

It  was  with  the  deepest  regret  that  the  Executive  found 
the  duty  of  employing  the  war  power  in  defense  of  the  Gov- 
ernment. Forced  upon  him,  he  could  but  perform  this  duty 
or  surrender  the  existence  of  the  Government.  ...  As  a 
private  citizen  the  Executive  could  not  have  consented  that 
these  institutions  shall  perish,  much  less  could  he,  in  betrayal 
of  so  vast  and  so  sacred  a  trust  as  these  free  people  had  con- 
fided to  him.     He  felt  that  he  had  no  moral  right  to  shrink, 


PRESIDENT  AND  CONGRESS.  325 

nor  even  to  count  the  chances  of  his  own  life  in  what  might 
follow. 

In  full  view  of  his  great  responsibility,  he  has  so  far 
done  what  he  has  deemed  his  duty.  You  will  now,  acording 
to  your  own  judgment,  perform  yours.  He  sincerely  hopes 
that  your  views  and  your  actions  may  so  accord  with  his  as 
to  assure  all  faithful  citizens  who  have  been  disturbed  in 
their  rights,  of  a  certain  and  speedy  restoration  to  them, 
under  the  Constitution  and  laws,  and  having  thus  chosen  our 
cause  without  guile,  and  with  pure  purpose,  let  us  renew  our 
trust  in  God,  and  go  forward  without  fear  and  with  manly 
hearts. 

Congress  authorized  the  President  to  call  for  five 
hundred  thousand  volunteers,  instead  of  the  four  hun- 
dred thousand  asked,  and  made  the  needed  appropria- 
tions. A  joint  resolution  was  introduced  in  the  Senate 
on  the  6th,  by  Mr.  Wilson,  to  legalize  and  confirm  the 
action  of  the  President  in  calling  for  troops  on  the  15th 
of  April;  in  declaring  a  blockade;  in  authorizing  sus- 
pension of  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  at  any  point  on  or 
near  the  military  line  between  Philadelphia  and  Wash- 
ington (April  27th)  and  on  the  coast  of  Florida  (May 
10th),  and  in  increasing  the  army  and  navy  forces  by 
his  proclamation  of  May  3d. 

Mr.  Breckinridge  (July  16th)  made  an  elaborate 
speech  on  this  resolution,  declaring  that  the  acts  speci- 
fied were  "  usurpations  on  the  part  of  the  Executive," 
and  that  "  this  high  officer  should  be  rebuked  by  both 
houses  of  Congress/' 

The  President  [he  said]  has  just  established  blockades. 
Where  is  the  clause  in  the  Constitution  which  authorizes  it? 
.  .  .  The  Constitution  declares  that  Congress  alone  ;has 
power  to  declare  war,  yet  the  President  has  made  war.  .  m  . 
The  resolution  proceeds  to  approve  the  act  of  the  President 
enlisting  men  for  three  and  five  years.     By  what  authority 


326       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

of  the  Constitution  and  law  has  he  done  this?  The  power 
is  not  in  the  Constitution,  nor  granted  by  law.  .  .  .  The 
resolution  goes  on  to  recite  that  the  President  has  suspended 
the  writ  of  habeas  corpus,  and  proposes  to  ratify  and  make 
that  valid. 

This  latter  power  Mr.  Breckinridge  affirmed  to  be- 
long solely  to  Congress,  and  cited  authorities  support- 
ing this  view,  including  a  recent  decision  of  Chief  Jus- 
tice Taney  in  the  case  of  one  Merryman,  arrested  for 
raising  rebel  recruits  in  Maryland  and  confined  in  Fort 
McHenry.  Application  being  made  to  Judge  Taney 
for  a  writ  of  habeas  corpus  in  the  case,  he  ordered  Gen- 
eral Cadwallader,  commanding  in  that  quarter,  to  bring 
Merryman  into  court.  This  was  refused  until  after  the 
General  had  consulted  his  superiors  at  Washington,  and 
thereupon  the  Judge  ordered  Cadwallader's  arrest  for 
contempt.  The  Marshal  sent  to  serve  the  writ  of  attach- 
ment against  the  General  was  refused  admission  to  Fort 
McHenry.  On  receiving  this  return  from  his  officer, 
Judge  Taney  declared  that  the  President  had  no  author- 
ity to  "  suspend  the  privileges  of  the  writ  of  habeas  cor- 
pus," and  that  "  a  military  officer  has  no  right  to  arrest 
and  detain  a  person,  nor  to  subject  him  to  the  Rules  and 
Articles  of  War,  for  an  offense  against  the  laws  of  the 
United  States,  except  in  aid  of  the  judicial  authority"; 
but  to  proceed  with  posse  comitatus  against  a  "  noto- 
riously superior  force  "  was  impossible,  and  the  Marshal 
had  done  all  in  his  power  to  discharge  his  duty. 

On  the  first  point  authorities  differ,  but  the  con- 
cluding opinion  is  indisputable.  When  war  rules,  the 
man  on  the  bench  has  no  chance  with  the  man  on 
horseback. 


PRESIDENT  AND  CONGRESS.  327 

There  were  other  acts  against  which  the  ex-Vice- 
President  protested  in  the  name  of  the  Constitution  and 
of  the  people  he  represented: 

You  have  martial  law  all  over  the  land.  .  .  .  Indi- 
viduals are  seized  without  legal  warrant  and  imprisoned. 
The  other  day,  since  Congress  met,  a  military  officer  in 
Baltimore  was  appointed  a  marshal  of  that  city.  Will  any 
one  defend  the  act?  .  .  .  Has  not  the  President  of  the 
United  States,  by  one  broad,  sweeping  act,  laid  his  hands 
upon  the  private  correspondence  of  the  whole  country?* 
.  .  .  We  may  have  this  joint  resolution  to  approve  these 
acts  and  make  them  valid,  but  we  can  not  make  them  valid 
in  fact. 

And  upon  this  "  usurping  "  Abraham  Lincoln,  duly 
elected  President  of  the  thirty-four  States  of  the  Union, 
Mr.  Breckinridge  —  having  set  the  tune  for  Vallandig- 
ham  and  other  successors  in  opposition  —  went  a  few 
days  later  to  acknowledge  and  fight  for  Jefferson  Davis 
as  President  of  eleven  of  those  States,  who  had  not  even 
a  claim  of  being  elected  to  that  office  by  their  people. 
Nor  had  Breckinridge  even  the  excuse  of  "  going  with 
his  own  State." 

Mr.  Kennedy,  of  Maryland,  during  the  debate,  ex- 
pressed his  belief  that  the  Union  could  not  be  recon- 
structed by  war;  and  coming  more  directly  to  the  reso- 
lution, he  asked  Mr.  Wilson  if  he  was  "  apprised  of  any 
necessity  for,  or  any  reasons  that  require  or  justify,  the 
suspension  of  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  in  Maryland.'' 
As  might  have  been  expected,  the  Massachusetts  Sen- 
ator, thus  invited,  found  no  lack  of  material  for  his 


*  This  referred  to  the  seizure  (May  20th)  of  dispatches  accumu- 
lated at  certain  telegraph  offices  during  the  year  preceding. 


328        LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

response,  concluding:  "  If  there  ever  was  in  any  por- 
tion of  the  republic  any  spot  of  earth,  or  any  time,  where 
and  when  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  ought  to  be  sus- 
pended, the  city  of  Baltimore  was  the  spot,  and  the  last 
few  weeks  the  time,  for  its  suspension." 

The  main  purposes  of  the  resolution,  which  did  not 
come  to  a  final  vote,  were  accomplished  in  another  form, 
with  but  few  opposing  voices  in  either  house.  An  act 
was  passed  authorizing  the  President  to  call  out  the 
militia  to  suppress  rebellion,  and  another  giving  him 
power  to  suspend  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  —  obviating 
objections  from  those  who  differed  from  the  majority  as 
to  the  executive  power  in  the  premises. 

Secretary  Cameron's  report  showed  that  the  total 
force  mustered  into  the  military  service  for  three  months 
under  the  call  of  April  15th  was  "  not  less  than  eighty 
thousand";  and  under  the  call  of  May  3d  for  "volun- 
teers to  serve  during  the  war,"  two  hundred  and  eight 
regiments  had  been  accepted  —  all  being  mustered  in 
except  fifty-five  regiments,  which  would  be  "  in  the 
field  in  twenty  days."  Adding  the  regular  army,  includ- 
ing the  new  regiments,  twenty-five  thousand  strong,  he 
gives  the  aggregate  of  troops  "now  at  command  of  the 
Government"  as  three  hundred  and  ten  thousand,  and 
"  after  the  discharge  of  the  three  months'  men,  two 
hundred  and  thirty  thousand."  On  the  2d  of  July  (the 
day  after  the  date  of  Mr.  Cameron's  report)  the  Presi- 
dent issued  a  proclamation  calling  for  three  hundred 
thousand  additional  volunteers. 

No  financial  suggestions  were  made  by  the  Presi- 
dent in  his  message,  that  subject  being  left  to  the  report 
of  Secretary  Chase,  required  by  law  to  be  made  directly 


PRESIDENT  AND  CONGRESS.  329 

to  Congress.  Mr.  Chase  had  no  inspired  utterance  to 
make  on  the  methods  of  raising  a  revenue  to  meet  the 
extraordinary  demands  on  the  treasury,  which  he  had 
found  in  so  disheartening  a  condition.  He  stated  the 
plain  facts  of  the  case,  with  well  considered  estimates  of 
receipts  to  be  expected  under  existing  laws.  His  main 
reliance  for  funds,  of  course,  was  on  Congressional  au- 
thority to  borrow  —  that  being  further  dependent  on 
the  confidence  of  capitalists  and  on  his  own  skill  in  bar- 
gaining. On  the  10th  of  July  the  House  passed  a  bill, 
reported  from  the  Committee  of  Ways  and  Means  by  its 
chairman,  Thaddeus  Stevens,  which  —  as  finally  mod- 
ified, concurred  in  by  the  Senate,  and  approved  by  the 
President  on  the  17th  —  authorized  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury  to  borrow,  within  one  year  from  the  date  of 
the  act,  a  sum  not  exceeding  two  hundred  and  fifty 
million  dollars,  either  on  bonds  bearing  not  exceed- 
ing seven  per  cent,  interest,  payable  semi-annually,  and 
redeemable  in  twenty  years,  or  at  any  time  after  five 
years  at  the  pleasure  of  the  Government;  or  on  Treasury 
notes  of  not  less  than  fifty  dollars,  payable  three  years 
after  date,  with  interest  at  seven  and  three-tenths  per 
cent.  For  the  faithful  and  punctual  payment  of  the 
interest,  in  both  cases,  the  import  duties  on  tea,  coffee, 
sugar,  spices,  wines  and  liquors  were  specially  pledged, 
as  well  as  such  excises  and  other  internal  taxes  as  should 
be  received  into  the  treasury.  The  only  Representa- 
tives voting  against  this  bill  on  its  passage  were  Messrs. 
Burnett,  Norton,  Reid,  Vallandigham,  and  Benjamin 
Wood.  Mr.  Vallandigham  preceded  his  vote  with  a 
violent  speech  in  opposition  to  the  Administration  and 
the  war.    Mr.  Burnett  (of  Kentucky)  soon  after,  like  Mr. 


330       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

Breckinridge,  joined  the  Confederate  army.  Messrs. 
Norton  and  Reid  were  from  Missouri,  and  took  a  like 
course.  The  remaining  two,  one  from  Ohio,  the  other 
from  New  York,  continued  according  to  this  beginning, 
in  Congress  or  out  of  it,  until  the  war  ended. 

By  an  act  approved  on  the  5th  of  August,  the  list  of 
dutiable  articles  of  import  was  enlarged,  and  an  act  was 
passed  levying  a  direct  tax  of  $20,000,000,  apportioned 
among  the  States,  including  those  in  insurrection,  to 
which  fell  a  share  amounting  to  $8,000,000. 

The  Secession  Congress  met  on  the  20th  of  July 
at  Richmond,  to  which  place  the  executive  offices  had 
been  transferred  from  Montgomery  on  the  21st  of  May. 
There  was  now  but  one  more  step  —  as  the  Confeder- 
ates seem  to  have  supposed  —  and  that  a  short  one,  for 
the  new  government  on  its  way  to  the  city  of  Wash- 
ington. The  State  of  Virginia,  at  the  time  of  Davis's 
arrival  there,  before  the  end  of  May,  had  already  thirty 
thousand  troops  either  in  camps  of  instruction  or  on 
duty, —  some  at  Norfolk,  some  on  the  Peninsula,  and 
others  at  different  points  farther  north, —  under  the 
chief  command  of  General  Robert  E.  Lee.  He  and 
his  second  in  command,  General  J.  B.  Magruder,  were 
classmates  of  Jefferson  Davis  at  West  Point,  and  under 
the  auspices  of  the  three  the  work  of  organizing  the 
Confederate  army  was  rapidly  pushed  forward. 


CHAPTER  XXV. 

1861. 
A  Battle — Outlook  at  Home  and  Abroad. 

Instead  of  a  Confederate  force  at  Manassas  Junction 
early  in  May,  there  were  sanguine  people  at  Washing- 
ton who  thought  there  should  have  been  a  Union  army 
at  Gordonsville.  The  example  of  Lyon  and  Blair  in  Mis- 
souri seemed  to  encourage  like  boldness  and  prompti- 
tude in  Virginia.  Holding  Manassas,  the  enemy  cov- 
ered all  the  railway  communications  with  the  Shenan- 
doah Valley;  holding  Gordonsville,  the  Government 
would  have  controlled  not  these  alone,  but  also  the  rail- 
way by  Lynchburg  into  Eastern  Tennessee.  Secretary 
Chase,  for  one,  believed  the  occupation  of  Gordonsville 
practicable,  and  urged  it  as  the  first  military  duty.  The 
Lieutenant-General  was  not  of  this  mind.  Gordonsville, 
ninety  miles  from  Alexandria  by  rail,  was  seventy  miles 
from  Richmond  and  well  to  the  westward;  the  Rappa- 
hannock River  was  a  formidable  barrier  to  be  encoun- 
tered early  on  the  way,  and  the  work  altogether  was 
not  to  be  done  off-hand  without  preparation.  After 
securing  Fortress  Monroe  on  the  Peninsula,  Scott  chose 
to  wait  until  the  form  of  a  popular  vote  on  the  ordinance 
of  Secession  had  been  gone  through  with  before  send- 
ing into  Virginia,  either  Eastern  or  Western,  so  much  as 
a  company  of  soldiers.    Meanwhile,  Confederate  armies 

( 331 ) 


332       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

had  advanced  far  north  and  east  of  Gordonsville;  across 
the  Rapidan;  across  the  Rappahannock;  even  within 
menacing  distance  of  the  national  capital. 

General  Beauregard  took  command  at  Manassas 
Junction  —  twenty-seven  miles  from  Washington  —  on 
the  2d  of  June;  General  Joseph  E.  Johnston,  with  a 
smaller  force,  held  Harper's  Ferry;  and  there  was  a 
brigade  under  General  Holmes  at  Acquia  Creek,  on 
the  Potomac  below,  in  near  communication  with  Fred- 
ericksburg. Beauregard  advanced  his  outposts  to  Fair- 
fax Courthouse,  midway  between  Manassas  and  Wash- 
ington, and  eastward  to  Leesburg,  near  the  Potomac 
above.  For  weeks  there  were  only  some  slight  col- 
lisions in  this  quarter;  Patterson,  sent  with  a  force  to 
oppose  Johnston,  tardily  crossed  the  Potomac,  and  early 
in  July  occupied  Martinsburg  and  Bunker  Hill,  ten  miles 
from  Winchester,  to  which  Johnston  retired. 

In  and  around  Washington  an  army  of  fifty-three 
thousand  men,  of  whom  three  thousand  were  regulars, 
had  been  gathering  since  the  18th  of  April.  The  city 
had  a  decidedly  military  aspect.  For  weeks  it  was  an 
evening  pastime  of  visitors  and  residents  of  both  sexes 
to  drive  to  the  camps  at  the  hour  of  dress  parade.  When 
at  length  the  troops  on  the  Washington  side  began  in 
July  to  cross  the  river,  it  was  understood  that  serious 
work  was  at  hand.  To  see  a  battle  —  an  opportunity 
that  might  not  occur  again  in  a  lifetime  —  was  naturally 
an  object  of  desire  to  many  civilians,  though  the  passes 
required  were  but  sparingly  given.  There  was  no  such 
general  rush  of  people  into  Virginia  as  exaggerated 
accounts  of  the  time  would  imply. 

McDowell's  army  consisted  of  five  divisions:     First, 


BATTLE  OF  BULL  RUN.  333 

D.  Tyler's  —  brigades  of  Keyes,  Schenck,  W.  T.  Sher- 
man and  Richardson;  second,  D.  Hunter's  —  brigades 
of  Andrew  Porter  and  Burnside;  third,  Heintzelman's — 
brigades  of  Franklin, Wilcox  and  O.  O.  Howard:  fourth, 
Runyon's  —  seven  regiments  of  New  Jersey  troops,  not 
brigaded  for  the  field,  but  used  in  guarding  communi- 
cations; fifth,  D.  S.  Miles's —  brigades  of  Blenker  and 
Davies.  To  the  first  division  were  attached  Carlisle's, 
Ayer's,  and  Varian's  batteries,  and  a  company  of  the 
Second  U.  S.  Cavalry;  to  the  second,  a  Rhode  Island 
battery,  one  company  of  the  Fifth  U.  S.  Artillery,  and 
two  companies  of  the  Third  U.  S.  Cavalry;  to  the  third, 
two  companies  of  the  Second  U.  S.  Artillery  and  one  of 
the  Second  U.  S.  Cavalry;  and  to  the  fifth,  a  company 
of  the  Third  U.  S.  Artillery.  McDowell  had  submitted 
to  the  General-in-Chief  a  plan  of  operations,  and  an 
advance  had  been  ordered  to  begin  on  the  8th  of  July; 
but  that  day  found  the  army  still  unready;  and  even 
when  the  marching  actually  began,  on  Tuesday,  the 
1 6th,  disorder  and  delay  in  the  movement  of  trains  and 
otherwise  lost  further  time.  The  advance  stopped  for 
the  night  at  Fairfax  Courthouse,  only  reaching  Centre- 
ville  on  the  17th.  McDowell  had  disposed  his  forces 
with  a  view  to  capture  the  Confederate  detachments  at 
Fairfax  Courthouse  and  Centreville.  which  seemed  pos- 
sible with  prompt  execution  of  his  orders,  but  before 
morning  both  places  were  evacuated. 

Soon  came  the  report  to  Washington,  in  various 
forms  and  from  different  sources,  that  Richardson's 
brigade  had  been  repulsed  with  severe  loss  at  Black- 
burn's Ford,  four  miles  beyond  Centreville.  Coming 
■within  a  mile  or  two  of  Bull  Run  at  that  ford,  a  recon- 


334        LINCOLN  AND  HJS  PRESIDENCY. 

noitering  party  learned  that  the  enemy  had  a  battery  on 
the  hither  side  of  the  stream,  and  so  placed  as  to  enfilade 
the  road,  while  skirmishers  occupied  woods  and  houses 
in  front.  Tyler  ordered  forward  the  entire  brigade, 
followed  by  Sherman  as  a  reserve.  The  advance  soon 
came  under  a  heavy  fire  of  musketry  and  artillery  from 
Longstreet's  command,  and  Richardson's  men  were  not 
extricated  without  serious  losses  and  disorder. 

For  the  next  three  days  McDowell's  forces  were 
encamped  at  and  near  Centreville  The  enemy  was  in 
position  along  the  south  bank  of  Bull  Run,  guarding 
the  fords  from  Union  Mills  to  the  Stone  bridge  —  a 
distance  of  seven  or  eight  miles.  The  three  principal 
roads  from  Centreville  crossing  the  stream  were:  that 
taken  by  Richardson  on  the  18th,  leading  due  south  to 
Manassas  Junction;  another  bearing  to  the  right  to  the 
Stone  bridge,  three  or  four  miles  above,  and  known  as 
the  Warrenton  pike;  and  the  third,  to  the  left,  cross- 
ing by  a  ford  at  Union  Mills  about  the  same  distance 
below.  Erom  Bull  Run  the  country  ascends  by  a  grad- 
ual rise  towards  Centreville,  about  four  miles  north  —  a 
straggling  village  overlooking  the  plains,  which  extend 
to  Manassas  Junction,  near  the  same  distance  beyond 
the  Run. 

On  the  morning  of  the  21st,  E well's  brigade  held 
the  Confederate  right  near  Union  Mills,  supported  by 
Holmes'  brigade,  which  had  been  withdrawn  from 
Acquia  Creek;  and  the  commands  of  D.  R.  Jones, 
Longstreet,  Bonham,  and  Cooke,  with  other  forces, 
extended  the  line  to  nearly  a  mile  beyond  the  Stone 
bridge,  Evans  being  on  the  extreme  left.  Early's  brig- 
ade was  held  in  reserve  within  supporting  distance  of 


BATTLE  OF  BULL  RUN.  335 

Jones  and  Ewell.  The  bulk  of  the  Confederate  force 
was  on  its  right,  without  material  change,  during  the 
last  three  days,  of  the  positions  taken,  with  the  expecta- 
tion that  McDowell  —  as  he  in  fact  originally  intended 
after  a  demonstration  at  Blackburn's  Ford — would  seek 
to  turn  the  right  of  Beauregard's  line.  On  this  Sunday 
morning,  however,  both  the  opposing  commanders  were 
proceeding  to  execute  newly  formed  plans,  each  having 
issued  orders  for  an  offensive  movement. 

Reporting  to  General  Scott  on  Friday,  after  a  "  per- 
sonal reconnoissance  of  the  roads,"  McDowell  desig- 
nated the  Manassas  Gap  Railway  as  his  present  objec- 
tive point,  his  aim  being:  "To  destroy  the  railroad  at 
or  near  Gainesville,  and  thus  to  break  up  the  communi- 
cation between  the  enemy's  forces  at  Manassas  and 
those  in  the  valley  of  Virginia  before  Winchester." 
Beauregard,  having  massed  his  troops  on  the  right  — 
a  large  portion  of  Johnston's  army  having  already  ar- 
rived —  had  given  orders  for  an  advance  from  Union 
Mills  with  a  view  to  outflank  McDowell  and  move  upon 
the  capital,  and  was  getting  impatient  at  Ewell's  unex- 
pected delay  in  starting,  when  the  sound  of  Union  guns 
far  away  to  his  left  caused  an  abrupt  change  of  front. 
Instead  of  the  march  on  Washington,  there  were  now 
hurry  and  bustle  to  prepare  for  defense. 

McDowell's  plan  required  possession  of  the  Stone 
bridge  and  the  Warrenton  pike,  extending  in  a  straight 
line  from  Centreville  to  Gainesville.  Tyler  and  Hunter 
were  to  start  in  the  early  morning  —  the  former  taking 
up  a  position  near  the  bridge,  while  Hunter  should 
make  a  flanking  detour,  crossing  above,  near  Sudley 


336        LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

Springs,  and  descending  the  opposite  bank.  Heintzel- 
man  was  to  follow  Hunter  as  far  as  the  defended  ford, 
a  mile  above  the  bridge,  and  there  await  his  arrival  on 
the  other  side;  both  Tyler  and  Heintzelman  to  co-op- 
erate with  Hunter.  Miles's  division  and  Richardson's 
brigade  of  Tyler's  were  ordered  to  "  threaten  the  Black- 
burn Ford,  and  remain  in  reserve  at  Centreville." 

The  head  of  Hunter's  column,  having  crossed  unop- 
posed, took  the  road  toward  Manassas.  For  the  first 
mile  thick  woods  were  on  his  left  quite  to  the  Run,  and 
on  his  right  woods  alternating  with  fields;  then  came 
a  more  open  country,  rolling  and  cultivated,  down  to 
the  Warrenton  road.  Soon  after  Burnside's  advance 
reached  this  cleared  space  the  enemy  opened  fire,  the 
Rhode  Island  and  New  Hampshire  men  sustaining  the 
attack  until  Porter's  regulars  and  a  regiment  sent  across 
the  stream  by  Heintzelman  came  up,  when,  after  a  sharp 
engagement,  their  assailants  were  driven  south  of  the 
Warrenton  road  and  across  Young's  Branch,  running 
at  the  foot  of  a  hill,  over  which  the  Sudley  Springs 
road  continued.  The  brigades  of  Sherman  and  Keyes 
were  now  at  hand,  with  the  remainder  of  Heintzelman's 
division;  the  Stone  bridge  and  the  pike  were  freed,  and 
under  close  pursuit  the  enemy  retired  up  the  slopes  and 
into  the  woods.  A  large  part  of  his  force  was  still  miles 
away.  The  fighting  had  begun  at  half-past  10  o'clock. 
Noting  well  the  position  now  gained,  but  little  after 
noon,  and  bearing  in  mind  McDowell's  objective  point, 
what  remained  but  to  move  rapidly  on  Gainesville? 
Instead,  there  was  a  pause.  Beauregard,  hurrying  his 
distant    troops    hither,    made    good    use    of   the    time. 


BATTLE  OF  BULU  RUN.  2>Z7 

Forming  his  lines,  he  recovered  by  a  gallant  charge  the 
ground  lost  south  of  the  Warrenton  pike,  not  far  from 
Groveton,  and  occupied  heights  on  his  left,  overlooking 
the  road  farther  west.  Assailed  and  driven  back,  he 
again  advanced;  and  thus  long  and  hotly  the  conflict 
raged.  Here  was  the  vital  point  of  battle.  In  three  suc- 
cessive charges  the  Confederates  were  repulsed.  Pre- 
viously their  front  ranks  had  been  "driven  nearly  a  mile 
and  a  half" ;  it  was  now  after  3  o'clock,  and  "it  was  sup- 
posed by  us  all,"  wrote  McDowell,  "that  the  [third] 
repulse  was  final."  The  enemy  "was  driven  entirely 
from  the  hill,  and  so  far  beyond  it  as  not  to  be  in  sight, 
and  all  were  certain  the  day  was  ours." 

But  the  enemy  had  had  full  time  to  gather  his  forces, 
including  the  last  installment  from  Winchester  —  John- 
ston himself  and  most  of  his  army  having  arrived  before 
the  fight  began.  To  destroy  the  Manassas  railway 
"  near  Gainesville  "  matters  little  now,  were  it  possible. 
Patterson  lamentably  failed  to  detain  his  adversary  as 
expected;  Patterson  and  his  men  count  for  nothing 
to-day.  McDowell's  crowning  opportunity  was  lost. 
While  his  men  refreshed  themselves,  the  enemy  stole 
quietly  through  the  woods  and  beyond  his  right,  then 
suddenly,  with  deadly  volleys  and  terrific  yells,  assailed 
his  flank.  In  confusion  and  panic  the  broken  phalanxes 
fled  down  the  slope  and  along  the  pike  by  which  they 
came.  McDowell  tried  to  rally  them  far  to  the  rear, 
using  his  reserves  to  guard  the  fugitives  from  annihi- 
lating pursuit.  A  defensive  line  was  formed  along  the 
Centreville  ridge.  Toward  this  barrier  the  tidal  wave 
swept  resistlessly  on.     Despite  the  barrier,  all  night  a 


22 


338       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

throng  was  on  its  way  to  the  old  camping-ground,  or 
beyond.  * 

Next  day,  "  Blue  Monday,"  in  a  pouring  rain,  with 
little  respite  from  dawn  to  dark,  blue-bloused  men  were 
continually  arriving,  dazed  and  weary,  in  Washington. 
"Rally  the  army  and  save  the  capital !"  had  been  the 
last  message  of  a  favorite  staff  officer  to  the  Lieutenant- 
General  at  midnight.  At  noon  Congress  gathered  in 
dismal  session.  On  motion  of  Mr.  Crittenden,  the 
House,  with  but  two  (" radical" )  dissenting  votes, 
resolved: 

That  the  present  deplorable  civil  war  has  been  forced 
upon  the  country  by  the  Disunionists  of  the  Southern  States 
now  in  revolt  against  the  Constitutional  Government,  and 
in  arms  around  the  Capital ;  that  in  this  National  emergency 
Congress,  banishing  all  feeling  of  mere  passion  or  resent- 
ment, will  recollect  only  its  duty  to  the  whole  country ;  that 
this  war  is  not  waged  on  our  part  in  any  spirit  of  oppres- 
sion, nor  for  any  purpose  of  conquest  or  subjugation,  nor 
purpose  of  overthrowing  or  interfering  with  the  rights  or 
established  institutions  of  the  States,  but  to  defend  and  main- 
tain the  supremacy  of  the  Constitution,  and  to  preserve  the 
Union,  with  all  the  dignities,  equality  and  rights  of  the  sev- 
eral States  unimpaired ;  and  that  as  soon  as  these  objects 
are  accomplished  the  war  ought  to  cease. 

To  such  a  culminating  epoch  had  four  months  of 
Lincoln's  administration  come. 

During  these  months  we  have  seen  the  President 
busily  occupied  with  changes  in  the  civil  service;  with 
the  complications  at  Charleston  and  Pensacola,  and  with 


*  The  numbers  actually  engaged  on  each  side  in  the  Battle  of 
Bull  Run  (or  Manassas)  were  nearly  the  same — about  18,000.  The 
Union  losses  were:  481  killed,  1,411  wounded,  1,216  prisoners,  and 
28  guns;  Confederate  losses:    387  killed,  1,582  wounded. 


OUTLOOK  AT  CLOSE  OF  JULY.        339 

the  organization  and  equipment  of  military  and  naval 
forces.  He  was  also  anxious  about  the  attitude  of  for- 
eign governments,  and  gave  careful  attention  to  the  dip- 
lomatic instructions  sent  out  by  the  Secretary  of  State. 
The  burdensome  daily  pressure  for  personal  interviews 
had  continued  with  little  abatement,  and  to  callers  of 
whatever  condition  he  was  amiably  indulgent  always. 
Society  also  had  claims,  which  were  not  neglected 
by  the  lady  of  the  White  House,  though  in  local  circles 
at  the  outset  there  was  scant  complacency  toward  the 
"  Republican  court."  There  was  no  lack  of  sneers,  in 
fact,  or  of  disparaging  inventions.  The  foreign  lega- 
tions were  mostly  in  sympathy  with  the  prevailing  tone. 
To  Mr.  Russell,  of  the  London  Times,  who  had  dined  at 
the  White  House  early  in  April,  some  of  the  lady  resi- 
dents used  great  freedom  of  speech.  He  noted  in  his 
diary,  when  just  starting  for  the  South,  April  12th: 

Some  ladies  said  to  me  that  when  I  came  back  I  would 
find  some  nice  people  in  Washington,  and  that  the  rail- 
splitter  and  his  wife,  the  Sewards,  and  all  the  rest  of  them, 
would  be  driven  to  the  place  where  they  ought  to  be :  "  Var- 
ina  Davis  is  a  lady,  at  all  events,  not  like  the  other.  We 
can't  put  up  with  such  people  as  these." 

The  same  correspondent  and  diarist,  after  returning 
from  the  South,  had  ridden  out  towards  Manassas  to 
get  a  glimpse  of  the  battle  he  was  to  describe,  but  was 
so  late  that  he  met  only  retreating  soldiers  miles  from 
the  field.  Shut  up  in  his  room  on  Monday,  writing  his 
impressions  of  the  Union  disaster  for  the  information  of 
Europe,  he  made  this  entry  in  his  diary  (July  226) : 

Why  Beauregard  does  not  come  I  know  not,  nor  can 
I  well  guess.  I  have  been  expecting  every  hour  since  noon 
to  hear  his  cannon.     Here  is  a  golden  opportunity.     If  the 


340        LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

Confederates  do  not  grasp  that  which  will  never  come  again 
on  such  terms,  it  stamps  them  with  mediocrity. 

The  repulse  and  rout  of  McDowell's  army  became 
definitely  known  throughout  the  land  on  Monday. 
Everywhere  the  next  news  was  dreaded,  lest  it  should 
be  that  the  capital  was  taken  and  the  Government  dis- 
persed. But  hour  after  hour,  day  after  day,  wore  on 
without  a  further  move  of  the  enemy  than  resuming  his 
outposts  at  Centreville  and  other  points  occupied  before 
the  battle.  On  the  Union  side  consternation,  exaspera- 
tion, determination,  quickly  followed  each  otjier  in  the 
popular  mind.  Causes  of  the  failure  were  discussed; 
there  were  grumblings  about  the  soldiers,  their  officers, 
and  the  Government;  yet  there  is  no  lack  of  examples 
as  bad  on  the  part  of  the  best  soldiers,  even  veterans, 
the  most  capable  Generals,  the  most  skillful  and  trust- 
worthy rulers.  Experience  was  educating  both  soldiers 
and  commanders.  A  year  or  two  later  such  tardiness 
of  preparation  and  movement  as  preceded  this  battle, 
such  halts  and  delays  as  there  were  at  the  very  turn- 
ing point  and  moment,  would  have  been  deemed  inex- 
cusable. The  President,  believing  McDowell  unfortu- 
nate rather  than  incapable,  remanded  him  to  a  less  re- 
sponsible position,  with  consoling  assurances  of  con- 
tinued confidence.  Patterson  was  less  easily  forgiven 
by  the  people.  His  successor  in  the  department  was 
Major-General  Nathaniel  P.  Banks,  whose  place  at  Bal- 
timore was  assigned  to  Major-General  John  A.  Dix  — 
that  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  who,  during  the  late  win- 
ter of  discontent,  had  telegraphed  to  an  officer  of  his 
department  at  the  South :  "  If  any  man  attempts  to  haul 
down  the  flag,  shoot  him  on  the  spot!" 


OUTLOOK  AT  CLOSE  OF  JULY.        341 

General  McClellan  was  promptly  summoned  to 
Washington  from  West  Virginia,  and  placed  at  the 
head  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  as  it  was  thereafter 
called.  He  was  credited  with  a  "celerity  of  movement" 
in  his  late  operations  quite  in  contrast  with  the  motions 
thus  far  exemplified  in  this  army  —  save  in  its  retreat 
from  Bull  Run.  He  had  sent  inspiriting  bulletins  an- 
nouncing victories,  which  now  more  than  ever  seemed 
a  commendable  thing  to  do.  He  was  everywhere  hailed 
by  the  press  and  the  people  as  a  rescuing  chief,  and  to 
excited  imaginations  was  radiant  with  reflected  glories 
of  the  future. 

To  Major-General  John  C.  Fremont,  who  had  been 
given  this  rank  in  the  regular  army  in  May,  had  already 
been  assigned  the  Department  of  the  West,  with  head- 
quarters at  St.  Louis.  His  department,  created  on  the 
6th  of  July,  included  the  States  of  Illinois,  as  well  as 
the  States  and  Territories  west  of  the  Mississippi  River 
and  east  of  the  Rocky  Mountains.  Fremont  and  Banks 
assumed  their  respective  commands  on  the  25th  of  July. 
General  McClellan,  given  his  new  command  on  the  same 
day,  arrived  in  Washington  on  the  26th. 

Confederate  success  in  the  first  real  battle,  fought 
almost  within  hearing  of  the  Federal  capital,  gave  the 
victors  abundant  prestige  abroad.  This  was  the  more 
effective  from  the  fact  that  Mr.  Seward,  in  his  diplo- 
matic communications  —  not  without  regard  to  influ- 
ence upon  Conservatives  and  Southern  Unionists  at 
home  —  had  eliminated  the  slavery  question  altogether 
from  the  issues  of  the  war.  Before  setting  out  on  his 
mission  Mr.  Adams  was  instructed  (April  10th): 


342       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

You  will  make  no  admission  of  weakness  in  our  Constitu- 
tion, or  of  apprehension  on  the  part  of  the  Government. 
.  .  .  You  will  in  no  case  listen  to  any  suggestions  of  com- 
promise by  this  Government  with  its  discontented  citizens. 
If,  as  the  President  does  not  at  all  apprehend,  you  shall 
unhappily  find  Her  Majesty's  government  tolerating  the 
application  of  the  so-called  seceding  States,  or  wavering 
about  it,  you  will  not  leave  them  to  suppose  for  a  moment 
that  they  can  grant  that  application  and  remain  the  friends 
of  the  United  States.  You  may  even  assure  them  promptly 
in  that  case  that  if  they  determine  to  recognize,  they  may 
at  the  same  time  prepare  to  enter  into  alliance  with,  the 
enemies  of  this  Republic.  You  alone  will  represent  the 
whole  of  it  there.  When  you  are  asked  to  divide  that  duty 
with  others,  diplomatic  relations  between  the  Government 
of  Great  Britain  and  this  Government  will  be  suspended,  and 
will  remain  so  until  it  shall  be  seen  which  of  the  two  i6 
most  strongly  intrenched  in  the  confidence  of  their  respective 
nations  and  of  mankind. 

In  his  letter  of  April  226.  to  Minister  Dayton  —  in 
disregard  of  those  who,  like  Mr.  Sumner,  had  been 
urgent  that  the  Administration,  from  the  first,  should 
be  "pronounced  on  the  side  of  freedom" — Mr.  Seward 
said  of  the  relations  of  slavery  to  the  war: 

Moral  and  physical  causes  have  determined  inflexibly  the 
character  of  each  one  of  the  Territories  over  which  the 
dispute  has  arisen  ;*  and  both  parties  after  the  election  har- 
moniously agreed  on  all  the  Federal  laws  required  for  their 
organization.  The  Territories  will  remain  in  all  respects 
the  same,  whether  the  revolution  shall  succeed  or  shall  fail. 


*  This  recalls  the  words  of  Daniel  Webster,  in  his  conservative 
speech  of  March  7,  1850.  California  and  New  Mexico,  he  said, 
were  "  destined  to  be  free  .  .  .  free  by  the  arrangement  of  things 
ordained  by  the  Power  above  us  "—adding :  "  I  would  not  take 
pains  uselessly  to  reaffirm  an  ordinance  of  nature,  nor  to  re-enact 
the  will  of  God." 


OUTLOOK  AT  CLOSE  OF  JULY.        343 

The  condition  of  slavery  in  the  several  States  will  remain 
just  the  same,  whether  it  succeed  or  fail. 

These  words,  written  while  the  city  of  Washington 
was  isolated  by  the  insurgents  in  April,  were  substan- 
tially indorsed  by  Congress  in  July,  after  a  battle  gained 
by  disunionists  "in  arms  around  the  capital."  It  is  easy 
to  see  how  such  assurances  from  Mr.  Seward  might  tend 
to  build  up  a  Union  party  to  which  Mr.  Crittenden  and 
other  Southern  leaders  might  belong;  but  for  combat- 
ing the  influence  of  the  Confederates  in  Europe,  where 
the  odium  of  slavery  was  their  chief  hindrance,  the  skill 
of  such  diplomacy  is  not  obvious. 

The  Secretary  had  early  undertaken  to  remedy  the 
refusal  of  a  previous  Administration  to  concur  in  the 
declarations  of  the  Paris  Congress  in  1856,  which  in- 
cluded the  abolition  of  privateering;  but  all  his  attempts 
to  have  the  case  reopened  were  unavailing.  He  also 
labored  hard,  and  quite  uselessly,  to  secure  a  reversal 
of  what  was  deemed  the  premature  action  of  the  British 
Government  in  conceding  belligerent  rights  to  the  Con- 
federates. England  and  France,  it  was  known,  had 
agreed  to  act  in  concert  as  to  affairs  pertaining  to  the 
Southern  Confederacy;  and  Mr.  Seward  wrote  to  Min- 
ister Adams  on  the  3d  of  June  that  "  the  principal  dan- 
ger "  apprehended  by  the  President  was  that  of  "  for- 
eign intervention,  aid,  or  sympathy  on  the  part  of  Great 
Britain."  What,  then,  might  be  the  prospect  abroad 
in  the  last  days  of  July? 


CHAPTER  XXVI. 

1861. 

Congress  —  War-making  and  Slavery  —  Affairs  in  the  W est 
—  Army  and  Navy  Operations  on  the  Coast. 

Congress  remained  in  session  until  the  6th  of 
August.  The  act  providing  for  the  levy  of  half  a  mil- 
lion men  was  uninfluenced  by  McDowell's  defeat,  hav- 
ing passed  both  houses  before  that  event,  though  signed 
by  the  President  the  day  after.  The  only  legislation 
directly  affecting  the  relations  of  master  and  slave  — ■ 
in  the  fourth  section  of  the  Confiscation  act  —  was  no 
more  radical  in  principle  than  the  President's  instruc- 
tions previously  given  to  commanders  in  the  field. 

The  war,  winding  its  long  line  across  the  country 
over  slave  soil,  was  perpetually  colliding  with  slavery 
itself.  Our  wars  with  Great  Britain  gave  the  South 
memorable  lessons  on  this  point.  Tens  of  thousands  of 
slaves  came  within  the  British  lines,  voluntarily  or  other- 
wise, during  the  Revolutionary  War.  never  to  be  recov- 
ered. Thousands  carried  away  by  the  same  power  in 
the  War  of  181 2,  first  into  the  British  provinces  on  the 
north,  and  afterwards  colonized  in  Africa,  were  long  a 
subject  of  negotiation  between  the  two  countries,  but 
the  slaves  never  returned.  Thomas  Jefferson,  who  him- 
self had  severe  losses  of  this  kind,  came  in  his  later  days 
to  have  a  dread  of  servile  insurrection  in  case  of  war 

(344) 


WAR-MAKING  ON  SLAVE  SOIL.        345 

with  a  foreign  power  and  invasion  of  Southern  terri- 
tory; and  Andrew  Jackson  in  1843,  arguing  for  the 
annexation  of  Texas,  presented  this  peril  in  strong 
colors.  The  uprising  of  slaves  in  Southeastern  Vir- 
ginia in  183 1,  and  a  similar  trouble  in  Louisiana,  com- 
bining with  the  horrors  of  the  San  Domingo  insurrec- 
tion, excited  apprehensions  which  fervid  imaginations 
dwelt  upon,  picturing  the  possibilities  of  a  servile  out- 
break in  this  country  on  such  a  scale,  and  with  such 
opportunities,  as  could  nowhere  else  be  paralleled. 

The  military  proclamations  of  McClellan,  Patterson, 
and  Butler,  on  taking  the  field,  reveal  a  consciousness 
of  this  dread,  and  a  wish  to  allay  it.  Were  not  men  who 
eschewed  all  race  and  caste  distinctions,  like  Lloyd  Gar- 
rison, consistent  in  denouncing  these  Northern  Generals 
for  offering  under  any  circumstances  to  turn  against 
their  fellow-men  seeking  to  be  free?  On  military  prin- 
ciples, it  was  argued  that  a  servile  insurrection  ought  to 
be  viewed  as  a  welcome  reinforcement.  On  the  other 
hand,  men  at  the  South,  no  longer  affecting  to  deny  the 
danger,  used  these  military  proclamations  to  increase 
exasperation  against  the  North  as  inciting  servile  insur- 
rection, and  to  intimidate  their  slaves  with  the  pretense 
that  they  were  to  be  massacred.  * 

One  thing  was  certain  —  the  inextricable  compli- 
cation of  slavery  with  war-making  on   Southern   soil. 


*  A  respectable  newspaper,  the  Mobile  Register,  said  (May 
25th) :  "  Servile  insurrection  is  a  part  of  their  program,  and  the 
slaves  are  to  be  indiscriminately  slaughtered;  and  when  the  last 
one  is  butchered,  then  it  is  thought  the  institution  will  cease  to 
exist.  .  .  .  The  Syrian  massacres  of  the  Christians  and  all  the 
crimes  of  its  bloody  participants  pale  before  the  proposed  atroci- 
ties of  the  Black  Republicans." 


346       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

Daily  experience  illustrated  this.  Fugitive  slaves  were 
continually  coming  into  the  Union  camps.  Masters 
would  come  through  the  lines  to  reclaim  their  property. 
If  all  such  claimants  did  not  actually  render  the  service 
of  spies  to  the  Confederates,  if  masters  did  not  even  send 
in  their  slaves  and  follow  after  for  this  express  purpose, 
no  thanks  were  due  to  the  amiable  Union  commanders 
who  gave  the  opportunity. 

Butler,  a  Breckinridge  Democrat  in  the  Presidential 
canvass,  found  grave  embarrassments  as  to  the  treat- 
ment of  slavery  thrust  upon  him  soon  after  taking  com- 
mand at  Fortress  Monroe.  Slaves  escaping  from  actual 
service  in  Confederate  batteries,  and  from  other  compul- 
sory labor  in  aid  of  the  rebellion,  sought  refuge  within 
his  lines.  As  a  military  officer,  he  saw  clearly  that  such 
persons,  at  least,  ought  not  to  be  sent  back  to  help  the 
enemy.  He  had  the  distinction  of  being  the  first  com- 
mander to  act  upon  the  theory  that  such  property  was 
"  contraband  of  war."  This  was  thought  a  bright  idea, 
and  found  great  popular  favor  as  well  as  approval  by 
the  Government.  "  Contrabands  "  were  set  at  work  on 
the  side  they  preferred. 

But  the  matter  speedily  assumed  a  wider  bearing. 
Butler  wrote  to  General  Scott  on  the  27th  of  May: 

The  inhabitants  of  Virginia  are  using  their  negroes  in 
the  batteries,  and  are  preparing  to  send  their  women  and 
children  south.  The  escapes  from  them  are  very  numerous, 
and  a  squad  has  come  in  this  morning,  and  my  pickets  are 
bringing  their  women  and  children.  Of  course,  these  can 
not  be  dealt  with  upon  the  theory  on  which  I  designed  to 
treat  the  services  of  able-bodied  men  and  women  who  might 
come  within  my  lines,  and  of  which  I  gave  you  a  detailed 
account  in  my  last  dispatch.  ...  I  have,  therefore,  deter- 
mined to  employ,  as  I  can  do  very  profitably,  the  able-bodied 


WAR-MAKING  ON  SLAVE  SOIL.        347 

persons  in  the  party,  issuing  proper  food  for  the  support  of 
all,  and  charging  against  their  services  the  expense  of  care 
and  sustenance  of  the  non-laborers.  .  .  .  Twelve  of  these 
negroes,  I  am  informed,  have  escaped  from  the  erection  of 
the  batteries  on  Sewall's  Point,  which  fired  upon  my  expe- 
dition as  it  passed  by  out  of  range.  As  a  means  of  offense, 
therefore,  in  the  enemy's  hands,  these  negroes,  when  able- 
bodied,  are  of  great  importance.  Without  them  the  bat- 
teries could  not  have  been  erected,  at  least  for  many  weeks. 
As  a  military  question  it  would  seem  to  be  a  measure  of 
necessity,  and  deprives  their  masters  of  their  services. 

Secretary  Cameron  replied  (May  30th),  approving 
the  General's  action,  and  instructing  him,  while  permit- 
ting no  "  interference  "  by  persons  under  his  command 
"  with  the  relations  of  persons  held  to  service  under  the 
laws  of  any  State,"  to  refrain  from  surrendering  to 
alleged  masters  any  persons  coming  within  his  lines. 
"The  question  of  their  final  disposition"  was  "reserved 
for  future  determination." 

Similar  instructions  were  given  to  other  department 
commanders.  There  wras  nothing  more  comprehensive 
or  thorough  in  the  action  of  Congress  down  to  the  close 
of  the  extra  session  —  over  two  weeks  after  the  unfor- 
tunate battle.  In  neither  house  was  there  a  more  zeal- 
ous Abolitionist  than  Owen  Lovejoy,  who  proposed 
nothing  stronger  than  the  following  —  an  expression  of 
opinion  merely: 

"Resolved,  That  in  the  judgment  of  this  House  it  is  no 
part  of  the  duty  of  the  soldiers  of  the  United  States  to  cap- 
ture and  return  fugitive  slaves." 

This  was  adopted,  yeas  ninety-two,  nays  fifty-five  — 
six  Republicans  voting  against  the  resolution  and  no 
Democrat  in  its  favor. 


348        LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

The  fourth  section  of  the  "act  to  confiscate  property 
used  for  insurrectionary  purposes,"  approved  August 
6th,  simply  provides  —  when  relieved  of  luxuriant  legal 
verbiage  —  that  the  owner  of  an  escaping  slave  who 
had,  with  such  owner's  consent,  been  put  to  hostile 
service  of  any  sort  against  the  Government,  should  for- 
feit all  right  to  reclaim  such  slave  by  judicial  remedy. 
The  act  does  not  guarantee  freedom  to  the  fugitive;  it 
promises  him  nothing.  Whatever  its  practical  purpose 
or  effect,  anything  bearing  the  color  of  emancipation  in 
terms  would  seem  to  have  been  studiously  avoided.  It 
does  not  go  so  far,  in  fact,  as  General  Butler  had  gone, 
with  the  President's  distinct  approval,  in  making  pro- 
vision for  the  family  of  an  able-bodied  "  contraband  " 
employed  within  the  Union  lines,  and  also  in  refusing 
to  surrender  to  a  disloyal  master  any  escaped  slave, 
whether  known  to  have  been  previously  doing  service 
in  direct  aid  of  the  rebellion  or  not. 

The  Congressional  high-water  mark  of  abolitionism 
at  the  extra  session  had  only  this  very  moderate  altitude. 

In  Missouri,  after  General  Lyon's  occupation  of 
Booneville  (June  18th),  Jackson  and  Price  retired  to 
the  southwest  corner  of  the  State,  crossing  the  Osage 
River,  and  concentrating  all  available  forces  in  Cedar 
County,  early  in  July.  With  hardly  four  thousand  men 
in  all,  Jackson  set  forward  to  meet  Ben  McCulloch,  who 
was  coming  with  reinforcements  across  the  Arkansas 
boundary.  On  his  way  Jackson  had  a  brush  with  Gen- 
eral Franz  Sigel,  who  hurried  on  to  Springfield,  where 
General  Lyon  joined  him  on  the  ioth  with  the  main 
part  of  his  command  from  Booneville.     Lyon,  greatly 


FREMONT  IN  MISSOURI.  349 

outnumbered  by  the  approaching  enemy,  asked  for  re- 
inforcements, meanwhile  strengthening  his  position  at 
Springfield  in  expectation  of  an  attack.  The  situation 
was  substantially  unchanged  when  Fremont  arrived  at 
St.  Louis  (July  25th)  and  took  command  of  the  depart- 
ment. Some  days  earlier,  General  John  Pope  had  been 
assigned  to  the  district  of  North  Missouri,  with  the 
duty  of  protecting  the  railway  from  Hannibal  across  the 
State,  and  of  safeguarding  Union  citizens  and  repressing 
guerrilla  bands. 

General  Leonidas  Polk  —  a  West  Point  graduate, 
who  left  the  army  for  the  church,  becoming  in  due  time 
Bishop  of  Louisiana,  and  now  turning  back  from  altar 
to  camp  —  had  assumed  the  chief  Confederate  com- 
mand in  the  West,  with  special  concern  for  the  salva- 
tion of  Missouri  and  Kentucky.  By  his  order,  Price 
and  McCulloch,  three  weeks  after  the  Manassas  battle, 
advanced  against  Springfield. 

Five  days  after  arriving  at  St.  Louis,  Fremont  pri- 
vately wrote  to  the  President  that  nearly  every  county 
in  Missouri  was  in  an  insurrectionary  condition;  that  the 
enemy  was  advancing  in  force  on  the  southern  frontier; 
that  "  within  a  circle  of  fifty  miles  around  General  Pren- 
tiss "  (at  Cairo)  there  were  above  twelve  thousand  Con- 
federate soldiers;  and  that  five  thousand  Tennessee  and 
Arkansas  riflemen  were  advancing  upon  Ironton.  He 
(Fremont)  was  "sorely  pressed  for  arms";  the  soldiers 
had  not  been  paid;  and  some  regiments  were  "in  a  state 
of  mutiny."  He  was  in  great  want  of  money,  and  helped 
himself,  as  thus  reported:  "The  Treasurer  of  the  United 
States  has  here  $300,000  entirely  unappropriated.  I 
applied  to  him  yesterday  for  $100,000  for  my  paymas- 


350       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

ter,  General  Andrews,  but  was  refused.  We  have  not 
an  hour  for  delay.  .  .  .  This  morning  I  will  order  the 
Treasurer  to  deliver  the  money  in  his  possession  to  Gen- 
eral Andrews,  and  will  send  a  force  to  the  treasury  to 
take  the  money,  and  will  direct  such  payments  as  the 
exigency  requires." 

It  was  eleven  days  yet  to  the  encounter  between 
Lyon  and  the  enemy  in  the  southwest.  Fremont  was 
not  indifferent  to  the  expected  event,  but  only  ordered 
two  additional  regiments  to  be  sent  to  Springfield. 
Unhappily,  Lyon  was  neither  adequately  supported  nor 
withdrawn  from  his  perilous  situation.  A  man  of  bold 
courage,  alert  and  aggressive  as  from  the  first,  on  learn- 
ing that  the  enemy,  about  twenty  thousand  strong,  was 
encamped  at  Wilson's  Creek,  nine  miles  away,  he  would 
neither  retreat  nor  await  the  onset.  On  the  afternoon 
of  August  9th  preparation  was  made  for  attacking  Price 
and  McCulloch  at  daybreak  the  next  morning,  one  col- 
umn under  Sigel  making  a  detour  by  the  Fayetteville 
road  to  the  Confederate  rear,  while  Lyon,  with  the 
remainder  of  his  forces,  was  to  strike  the  adversary's 
advance  camp.  The  movement  began  at  5  o'clock  that 
evening.  Lyon  drove  in  the  enemy's  pickets  very  early 
on  the  morning  of  the  10th.  The  enemy  was  soon  astir, 
and  the  fight  went  on  with  alternating  onset  and  repulse 
until,  before  a  terrific  charge  of  the  enemy,  about  9 
o'clock,  the  slender  Union  force  seemed  to  waver. 
Lyon,  whose  horse  had  been  shot  under  him,  and  who 
had  himself  been  three  times  wounded  during  the  morn- 
ing, again  mounted,  put  himself  at  the  head  of  an  Iowa 
regiment  whose  Colonel  had  been  killed,  and  ordered  a 
bayonet  charge.     Almost  at  the  moment  his  breast  was 


FREMONT  IN  MISSOURI.  351 

pierced  by  a  rifle  ball,  and  he  fell  lifeless  from  the  saddle. 
The  charge  was  successful,  and  the  action  continued  yet 
for  more  than  two  hours. 

Meanwhile,  two  miles  away,  Sigel  had  struck  the 
enemy's  right  with  effect  at  an  early  hour.  McCulloch 
moved  in  that  direction  in  person  and  ordered  up  heavy 
reinforcements.  Finally,  Sigel  was  compelled  to  retreat, 
losing  five  guns,  and  with  the  rest  of  the  army  —  Major 
Sturgis,  of  the  regulars  succeeding  Lyon  in  command — 
fell  back  the  next  day  to  Rolla,  in  railway  communica- 
tion with  St.  Louis.  The  losses  in  the  battle  of  Wil- 
son's Creek,  as  shown  by  the  war  records,  were:  Union, 
238  killed,  761  wounded;  Confederate,  279  killed,  951 
wounded. 

Near  the  end  of  August,  Price,  from  whom  McCul- 
loch and  his  men  had  withdrawn,  set  out  on  his  march 
northward  from  Springfield.  By  the  Missouri  River 
Fremont  had  easy  communication  across  the  State,  if 
properly  secured  by  garrisoned  forts  above  Jefferson 
City.  It  was  not  until  after  the  1st  of  September  that 
Price  was  thought  to  be  getting  dangerously  near,  or 
that  forces  were  sent  up  for  the  defense  of  Lexington. 
Yet  Fremont,  who,  in  the  excitement  following  the 
death  of  General  Lyon  and  the  retreat  of  his  army,  had 
proclaimed  martial  law  in  St.  Louis,  now  —  two  weeks 
later  —  extended  that  extreme  measure  over  the  whole 
State,  saying  in  an  order  dated  August  30th: 

Circumstances  in  my  judgment  are  of  sufficient  urgency 
to  render  it  necessary  that  the  commanding  General  of  this 
department  should  assume  the  administrative  powers  of  the 
State.  ...  I  do  hereby  extend  and  declare  established 
martial  law  throughout  the  State  of  Missouri.  .  .  .  All 
persons  who  shall  be  taken  with  arms  in  their  hands  within 


352        LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

these  lines  shall  be  tried  by  court-martial,  and,  if  found 
guilty,  will  be  shot.  Real  and  personal  property  of  those 
who  shall  take  up  arms  against  the  United  States,  or  who 
shall  be  directly  proven  to  have  taken  an  active  part  with 
their  enemies  in  the  field,  is  declared  confiscated  to  public 
use,  and  their  slaves,  if  any  they  have,  are  hereby  declared 
free  men. 

All  persons  who  shall  be  proven  to  have  destroyed,  after 
the  publication  of  this  order,  railroad  tracks,  bridges,  or  tele- 
graph lines,  shall  suffer  the  extreme  penalty  of  the  law.  .  .  . 

At  once,  on  reading  this  order,  the  President  wrote 
privately  to  Fremont  (September  2d): 

Two  points  in  your  proclamation  of  August  30th  give  me 
some  anxiety.  First  —  Should  you  shoot  a  man,  according 
to  the  proclamation,  the  Confederates  would  very  certainly 
shoot  our  best  men  in  their  hands,  in  retaliation ;  and  so 
man  for  man  indefinitely.  It  is,  therefore,  my  order  that  you 
allow  no  man  to  be  shot,  under  the  proclamation,  without 
first  having  my  approbation  and  consent.  Second  —  I  think 
there  is  a  great  danger  that  the  closing  paragraph  in  relation 
to  the  confiscation  of  property,  and  the  liberating  of  slaves 
of  traitorous  owners,  will  alarm  our  Southern  Union  friends, 
and  turn  them  against  us  —  perhaps  ruin  our  rather  fair 
prospect  for  Kentucky.  Allow  me,  therefore,  to  ask  that 
you  will,  as  of  your  own  motion,  modify  that  paragraph  so 
as  to  conform  to  the  first  and  fourth  sections  of  the  act  of 
Congress  entitled  "An  act  to  confiscate  property  used  for 
insurrectionary  purposes,"  approved  August  6th,  1861  —  a 
copy  of  which  act  I  herewith  send  you.  This  letter  is  writ- 
ten in  a  spirit  of  caution,  and  not  of  censure.  I  send  it  by 
special  messenger  in  order  that  it  may  certainly  and  speedily 
reach  you. 

The  General,  who  had  actually  begun  to  issue  deeds 
of  manumission  to  slaves,  replied  on  the  8th,  declining 
to  recede  except  under  a  positive  order,  whereupon  the 
President  wrote  him  on  the  nth: 

Assured  that  you,  upon  the  ground,  could  better  judge 
of  the  necessities  of  your  position  than  I  could  at  this  dis- 


FREMONT  IN  MISSOURI.  353 

tance,  on  seeing  your  proclamation  of  August  30,  I  per- 
ceived no  general  objection  to  it;  the  particular  clause,  how- 
ever, in  relation  to  the  confiscation  of  property  and  the  lib- 
eration of  slaves  appeared  to  me  to  be  objectionable  in  its 
nonconformity  to  the  act  of  Congress,  passed  the  6th  of  last 
August,  upon  the  same  subject,  and  hence  I  wrote  you,  ex- 
pressing my  wish  that  that  clause  should  be  modified  accord- 
ingly. Your  answer,  just  received,  expresses  the  preference 
on  your  part  that  I  should  make  an  open  order  for  the  modi- 
fication, which  I  very  cheerfully  do.  It  is,  therefore,  ordered 
that  the  said  clause  of  the  said  proclamation  be  so  modified, 
held,  and  construed  as  to  conform  with  and  not  to  transcend 
the  provisions  on  the  same  subject  contained  in  the  act  of 
Congress  entitled  "An  act  to  confiscate  property  used  for 
insurrectionary  purposes,"  approved  August  6,  1861,  and 
that  said  act  be  published  at  length  with  this  order. 

For  thus  restraining  Fremont  within  the  limits 
which  Congress  deemed  proper  in  regard  to  slavery,  the 
President  did  not  escape  criticism.  Undue  prominence 
was  given  to  the  incident  for  a  time  by  many  ardent  per- 
sons, who  thought  something  important  in  principle  had 
been  sacrificed  to  conciliate  Kentucky  and  conservative 
Unionists.  The  wisdom  of  the  President  in  annulling 
a  subordinate's  unauthorized  order  conflicting  with  the 
military  policy  which  the  Government  had  adopted 
must,  however,  have  been  generally  conceded,  even  in 
the  excitement  of  the  period. 

General  Polk  was  pushing  forward,  early  in  Septem- 
ber, regardless  of  Kentucky  "  neutrality,"  to  occupy 
Columbus  and  Paducah;  and  Fremont  wished  his  de- 
partment extended  so  as  to  include  Kentucky,  Tennes- 
see and  Indiana  —  proposing  a  grand  plan  of  operations 
in  the  West.  Whatever  Lincoln  thought  of  these  sug- 
gestions, he  did  not  adopt  them.  Fremont  had  already 
23 


354       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

fallen  into  disfavor  with  some  of  the  more  radical  men 
in  Missouri,  while  conservatives  like  Attorney-General 
Bates  and  Provisional-Governor  Gamble  gave  him  no 
confidence  after  his  manumission  order.  There  were 
complaints,  amounting  to  serious  charges,  in  regard  to 
contracts  and  the  men  who  surrounded  him,  to  the 
exclusion  of  others  from  a  share  in  his  councils;  his 
ostentatious  body-guard,  and  in  general  his  assumption 
of  the  airs  of  a  dictator.  To  many  of  his  earliest  friends 
—  the  Blair  family  included  —  he  seemed  wanting  in 
tact,  if  not  absolutely  in  administrative  skill. 

Fremont's  ideas  about  the  importance  of  the  Cairo 
district  and  the  organization  of  a  gunboat  service  for 
co-operation  in  opening  the  river  below  were  good,  and 
his  action  in  that  direction  was  judicious.  Credit  is  due 
him  for  the  early  and  earnest  attention  he  gave  to  the 
creation  of  the  fleet  of  which  Flag-officer  Andrew  H. 
Foote  was  put  in  command  on  the  26th  of  August.  A 
former  captain  of  the  regular  army,  who  had  been  com- 
missioned as  Colonel  of  the  Twenty-first  Regiment  of 
Illinois  volunteers  in  June,  and  as  a  Brigadier-General 
in  August  —  Ulysses  S.  Grant  —  was  given  command 
of  the  district  of  Southeastern  Missouri,  including  Cape 
Girardeau  and  Bird's  Point,  as  well  as  Cairo  and  its 
immediate  surroundings.  By  a  timely  movement  in 
anticipation  of  the  enemy  already  at  Hickman  and 
Columbus,  Grant  occupied  Paducah,  at  the  mouth  of 
the  Tennessee  River,  on  the  6th  of  September. 

Up  the  Missouri  River,  Price  with  his  increasing 
army  moved  near  the  same  time  to  get  possession  of 
Lexington,  Missouri, —  an  important  post,  quite  insuf- 
ficiently guarded, —  which  Colonel  Mulligan,  of  the  Chi- 


FREMONT  IN  MISSOURI.  355 

cago  brigade,  was  now  hastily  dispatched  from  Jefferson 
City,  with  a  total  force  of  less  than  three  thousand  men, 
to  occupy  and  fortify.  Price  arrived  there  on  the  12th 
with  a  largely  superior  force.  The  garrison  bravely 
repulsed  Price's  assaults,  and  it  was  only  after  close 
siege  and  the  exhaustion  of  all  resources  that  the  place 
and  its  defenders  were  surrendered  on  the  20th.  The 
commanding  General,  having  full  control  of  the  river  up 
to  that  point,  was  naturally  blamed,  not  only  for  leav- 
ing Lexington  so  exposed,  but  especially  for  getting  no 
effective  relief  to  Mulligan  during  the  eight  days  of  his 
heroic  defense. 

Fremont,  with  the  largest  force  available,  presently 
took  the  field  in  person  against  Price,  who,  before  the 
close  of  September,  was  again  on  his  way  southward. 
On  the  8th  of  October  Fremont  paused  at  Tipton,  on 
the  Pacific  Railway.  Here  he  was  visited  by  Secretary 
Cameron,  accompanied  by  Adjutant-General  Thomas 
and  others,  for  conference  with  the  General  and  for 
inspection  of  his  army  of  thirty  thousand  men  in  camp. 
Cameron  had  the  President's  order  relieving  Fremont, 
to  be  used  or  not,  at  discretion,  and  decided  to  withhold 
it  for  the  present.  Before  the  General  reached  Spring- 
field, his  removal  was  positively  determined,  and  he 
there  received  an  order  from  the  War  Department  to 
turn  over  his  command  to  General  Hunter.  At  that 
date,  November  2d,  Price  and  his  main  force  were  fifty 
miles  away,  at  Pinesville. 

In  Kentucky  a  new  Legislature  was  chosen  at  the 
August  election.  About  three-fourths  of  the  members 
of  either  branch  were  Unionists;  and  at  the  September 
session  resolutions  were  passed  which,  after  stating  that 


356       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

Kentucky  had  been  invaded  and  the  rights  of  her  citi- 
zens grossly  infringed  "  by  the  so-called  Confederate 
forces,"  demanded  that  the  Governor  call  out  the  militia 
to  expel  the  invaders,  and  asked  the  Government  of  the 
United  States  for  the  aid  guaranteed  in  such  cases  by 
the  Constitution.  It  was  also  requested  that  General 
Robert  Anderson,  who  had  been  prospectively  assigned 
to  the  command  in  that  military  district,  but  was  seek- 
ing much  needed  rest  and  recuperation,  should  imme- 
diately enter  upon  the  active  discharge  of  his  duties. 
Governor  Magoffin  vetoed  the  resolutions,  which  were 
carried  over  his  veto. 

At  an  earlier  date  the  Union  leaders,  lightly  regard- 
ing the  Governor's  "neutrality,"  had  taken  measures  for 
the  enlistment  of  loyal  soldiers,  and  for  organizing  two 
encampments:  Camp  Holt,  near  Louisville,  under  Gen- 
eral Lovell  H.  Rousseau,  and  Camp  Dick  Robinson,  in 
Garrard  County,  under  General  William  Nelson.  The 
Department  of  the  Cumberland  was  created  on  the  6th 
of  August,  under  the  command  of  General  Anderson, 
with  Generals  W.  T.  Sherman  and  George  H.  Thomas 
as  subordinates  next  in  rank.  Anderson's  name  was  of 
great  value  to  the  Union  cause  in  his  native  State,  yet 
he  felt  his  health  to  be  inadequate  for  assuming  active 
command,  and  was  presently  relieved  at  his  own  request. 
Sherman  succeeded  him  temporarily,  but  declined  the 
permanent  command,  and  was  absent  for  some  time  on 
sick  leave.  The  chief  command  of  the  department  was 
then  given  to  General  Don  Carlos  Buell. 

Hunter's  assignment  to  succeed  Fremont  was  not 
meant  to  be  permanent.  The  real  successor  was  called 
from  California  —  General  Henry  W.  Halleck,  a  West 


FREMONT  IN  MISSOURI.  35; 

Point  graduate,  who  had  resigned  his  army  commis- 
sion several  years  before,  and  was  in  lucrative  practice 
as  a  lawyer.  Both  Halleck  and  Buell  were  assigned  to 
their  respective  department  commands  on  the  10th  o| 
November,  and  very  soon  entered  on  duty. 

While  Fremont  was  preparing  to  cross  the  Osage,  a 
movement  intended  to  restrain  Polk  from  reinforcing 
Price  was  ordered  to  be  made  by  Grant,  with  the  aid 
of  transports  and  two  of  Foote's  gunboats,  against  Bel- 
mont, where  there  was  a  Confederate  camp  across  the 
river  from  Columbus.  Disembarking  at  Hunter's  Point, 
two  or  three  miles  above  Belmont,  on  the  morning  of 
the  7th,  Grant's  force  rapidly  advanced  with  little  resist- 
ance until  quite  up  to  the  outer  works  of  the  enemy. 
The  place  was  soon  carried,  the  tents  and  equipage 
burned,  and  the  guns  taken.  While  the  men  were 
resting  and  refreshing  themselves,  their  way  back  to 
Hunter's  Point  was  obstructed  by  superior  numbers 
sent  across  the  river  above,  and  by  the  fire  of  Polk's  bat- 
teries on  the  heights  of  Columbus.  Grant,  with  thirty- 
five  hundred  men,  contended  for  several  hours  with 
three  regments  under  Pillow,  as  many  under  Cheatham, 
and  a  reinforcement  of  two  regiments  more  brought 
over  by  Polk  in  person.  The  bayonet  was  used  again 
and  again;  it  was  an  engagement  at  seemingly  hopeless 
odds;  yet  Grant  fought  his  way  through,  bringing  off 
not  only  his  own  guns,  but  two  of  those  captured  at 
Belmont.  Material  assistance  was  rendered  by  the  gun- 
boats —  an  arm  of  the  naval  service  that  was  to  prove 
formidable  henceforward  on  the  Western  rivers.  While 
the  Confederates  were  fairly  entitled  to  add  Belmont  to 
their  list  of  victories,  there  was  yet  something  in  the 


358        LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

conduct  of  Grant  and  his  men  in  this  engagement  which 
relieved  the  result  from  the  color  of  disaster. 

In  Western  Virginia,  General  Rosecrans  succeeded 
McClellan,  with  headquarters  at  Clarksburg  during  the 
month  of  August.  General  J.  D.  Cox  had  advanced 
from  Guyandotte  up  the  Kanawha  Valley,  when  McClel- 
lan moved  on  Beverly.  Cox  occupied  Charleston  on 
the  25th  of  July,  and  Gauley  Bridge  on  the  29th,  ex- 
Governor  Wise's  command  retreating  into  Greenbrier 
County.  Here  reinforcements  reached  him  early  in 
August  —  ex-Secretary  Floyd  included,  who  outranked 
Wise  and  was  zealous  for  aggressive  action.  Rosecrans 
moved  rapidly  to  the  support  of  Cox  at  Carnifex  Ferry, 
and  after  a  sharp  collision  (September  10th),  Floyd  and 
Wise  retired  to  Sewell's  Mountain.  General  Robert  E. 
Lee  here  joined  them,  assuming  chief  command,  and, 
though  he  had  superior  numbers,  waited  to  be  attacked. 
Rosecrans  finally  withdrew  (October  16th)  without 
being  pursued,  and  went  into  camp  on  New  River. 
Lee  returned  to  Richmond,  with  his  reputation  for  the 
moment  in  a  haze. 

Preparations  to  enforce  the  blockade  were  pushed 
with  vigor  from  the  moment  it  was  decided  upon. 
Many  steamers  were  bought  or  chartered  and  speedily 
made  ready  for  naval  service.  Including  water-craft  of 
all  sorts  then  used  in  naval  operations,  there  were  hun- 
dreds of  new  constructions.  Captain  Fox,  as  Assistant 
Secretary  of  the  Navy,  had  a  full  share  of  credit  for  the 
efficiency  of  the  department  in  this  work.  The  large 
demand  for  volunteer  seamen  was  so  promptly  met  that 
the  newly  equipped  vessels  were  adequately  manned  as 
fast  as  they  were  ready  —  generally  by  men  inured  to 


HATTERAS— PORT  ROYAL— WILKES.     359 

marine  life.  Two  blockading-  squadrons  were  organ- 
ized: the  Atlantic,  under  Flag-officer  Silas  H.  String- 
ham,  and  the  Gulf,  under  Flag-officer  William  Mervine. 
By  the  1st  of  July,  Stringham  had  twenty-two  vessels, 
with  a  total  of  296  guns  and  3,300  men;  and  Mervine, 
twenty-one  vessels,  282  guns,  and  3,500  men. 

A  combined  military  and  naval  expedition  under 
General  Butler  and  Commodore  Stringham  left  Hamp- 
ton Roads  on  the  26th  of  August,  and  next  day  arrived 
off  Hatteras  Inlet,  the  entrance  to  Pamlico  Sound.  The 
place  was  defended  by  two  forts,  garrisoned  by  a  force 
of  seven  hundred  men,  under  the  command  of  Commo- 
dore S.  Barron,  a  seceder  from  the  United  States  Navy. 
Fire  was  opened  on  the  enemy's  works  on  the  morning 
of  the  28th,  and  on  the  29th  the  place  was  surrendered, 
with  its  garrison,  guns,  and  stores.  Here  was  one  of 
the  favorite  haunts  of  blockade-runners,  a  number  of 
which  vessels,  unaware  of  the  change  of  command  in 
the  harbor,  ran  in  and  were  welcomed  as  prizes.  The 
prompt  success  of  this  expedition  gave  great  satisfaction 
at  the  North,  as  the  first  severe  return  blow  after  the 
day  at  Manassas. 

Another  like  enterprise,  under  General  Thomas  W. 
Sherman  and  Commodore  S.  F.  Dupont,  destined  for 
Port  Royal  harbor,  encountered  a  severe  storm,  soon 
after  starting  on  the  29th  of  October,  causing  some 
losses  and  delay.  The  harbor  was  defended  by  works 
at  Hilton  Head  and  Phillips  Island,  opposite.  Dupont 
began  his  attack  on  the  forts  in  the  morning  of  Novem- 
ber 7th,  and  after  five  hours'  fighting,  the  enemy  took  to 
flight.  Permanent  possession  of  this  important  harbor 
was  now  secure.     Had  the  army  pressed  forward  at 


360        LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

once,  it  was  maintained  at  the  time, —  and  this  is  fully 
confirmed  by  the  opinion  of  General  R.  E.  Lee,  pub- 
lished after  the  war, —  Charleston  and  Savannah  were 
at  the  mercy  of  Sherman.  Either  his  orders  were  at 
fault,  or  this  was  not  the  right  Sherman.  He  paused, 
and  only  occupied  Beaufort,  on  Port  Royal  Island,  on 
the  8th  of  December  —  a  month  after  Dupont  had  cap- 
tured the  two  forts  on  Tybee  Island,  below  Savannah, 
insuring  the  speedy  "  repossession  "  of  Fort  Pulaski, 
which  was  within  shelling  distance. 

The  Sea  Islands,  famous  for  their  cotton,  were  at 
once  brought  under  Government  control.  The  plan- 
tations on  fifteen  islands,  large  and  small,  numbered  two 
hundred,  and  there  were  about  eight  thousand  negroes 
left  behind  by  the  whites  in  their  flight.  Several  thou- 
sand colored  fugitives  came  into  the  camp  at  Hilton 
Head,  who  were  taken  care  of  under  instructions  similar 
to  those  given  to  General  Butler  the  previous  summer. 

Two  other  military-naval  expeditions  had  also  been 
for  some  time  in  preparation,  with  concealed  destina- 
tion,—  one,  in  fact,  to  Roanoke  Island,  the  other  to 
New  Orleans, —  which  did  not  get  under  way  until  after 
the  close  of  the  year. 

The  most  exciting  naval  incident  of  the  season  was 
the  arrest  of  ex-Senators  Mason  and  Slidell  on  their  way 
to  Europe  as  Confederate  ambassadors.  Embarking  at 
Charleston  on  the  Theodora,  a  blockade-runner,  they 
had  safely  reached  Havana,  where  they  took  passage  on 
the  British  mail-steamer  Trent.  Captain  (later  Rear- 
Admiral)  Charles  Wilkes,  of  the  San  Jacinto,  cruising  in 
Cuban  waters,  stopped  the  Trent  while  proceeding  on 
her  voyage,  and  forcibly  transferred  the  two  emissaries 


HATTERAS— PORT  ROYAL— WILKES.     361 

and  their  secretaries  to  his  own  vessel,  to  the  great  indig- 
nation of  the  English  captain  and  his  captured  passen- 
gers. This  happened  on  the  8th  of  November,  but  was 
unknown  in  Washington  or  London  for  several  days. 
Wilkes  reported  full  details  to  Secretary  Welles,  who 
promptly  responded  in  a  complimentary  letter  on  the 
last  day  of  November.  Wilkes  brought  his  prisoners 
to  New  York,  from  whence  they  were  sent  to  Fort 
Warren,  in  Boston  harbor. 


CHAPTER  XXVII. 

1861. 

Army  of  the  Potomac  —  Ball's  Bluff  —  McClellan  Succeeds 
Scott  as  General-in-Chief  —  Congress  —  Mes- 
sage —  The  Trent  Trouble. 

During  these  summer  and  autumn  months  the  army 
at  Washington  was  absorbing  the  main  share  of  men  and 
means.  Recruits  came  in  rapidly;  even  by  the  1st  day  of 
August  the  enemy  was  undoubtedly  outnumbered,  and 
time  was  precious,  as  Treasury  ledgers  proved.  Sep- 
tember found  this  army  doubled  in  strength  and  still  in 
camp.  The  enemy  had  advanced  in  force  to  Centre- 
ville;  to  Fairfax  Courthouse:  had,  indeed,  an  outpost 
at  Munson's  Hill,  in  sight  of  the  capitol  dome.  Above 
the  city  he  held  Leesburg  and  the  right  bank  of  the 
Potomac,  and  he  blockaded  the  river  below.  The 
only  direct  railway  communication  with  the  West  was 
broken  at  Harper's  Ferry.  An  invasion  of  Maryland 
was  menaced  both  by  the  upper  and  the  lower  Potomac. 

Six  days  after  McDowell's  defeat,  McClellan  found 
in  camp  about  fifty  thousand  men.  Scott  believed  the 
capital  in  no  danger,  and  McClellan  at  the  time  esti- 
mated that  twenty  thousand  men  would  suffice  for  its 
security.  When,  six  months  later,  he  wrote,  "  The  city 
was  almost  in  a  condition  to  have  been  taken  by  a  dash 
of  a  regiment  of  cavalry,"  his  language  was  misleading, 

(362) 


ARMY  OF  THE  POTOMAC.  363 

unless  understood  as  extravagantly  expressing  an  engi- 
neer's estimate  of  the  weakness  of  the  city's  defensive 
works.  The  fortifications  begun  under  the  direction 
of  Chief  Engineer  Barnard  before  McClellan  came  to 
Washington  were  so  rapidly  pushed  that  thirty-two 
forts  were  completed  before  the  end  of  September. 
Two  months  later  there  were  forty-eight,  and  early  in 
January  the  whole  number  designed  on  both  sides  of 
the  river  —  in  all  fifty-two. 

Two  interesting  incidents  of  the  first  few  days  after 
McClellan's  arrival,  and  before  he  was  invested  with  the 
command  of  all  the  forces  reorganized  as  the  Army  of 
the  Potomac, —  namely,  his  all-embracing  plan  submit- 
ted to  the  President,  and  his  collision  with  his  superior 
officer,  the  Lieutenant-General, —  were  little  known  to 
the  public  at  the  time,  and  have  received  slight  attention 
since.  Lincoln  was  anxious  to  learn  the  views  of  his 
new  General  concerning  the  business  intrusted  to  him, 
and  early  made  inquiry  to  that  end,  probably  expecting 
no  elaborate  plans,  and  least  of  all  a  survey  of  the  field 
at  large.  In  response,  however,  McClellan  on  the  4th 
of  August  presented  a  "  memorandum  "  of  generous 
dimensions,  and  so  broad  in  scope  as  to  include  a  treaty 
with  Mexico,  authorizing  troops  from  our  Pacific  States 
to  land  at  the  port  of  Guaymas  and  march  across  Mexi- 
can territory  to  Texas  and  New  Mexico.  This  would 
not  only  help  to  defeat  the  rebel  designs  in  that  region, 
but  also  to  protect  and  develop  "  the  latent  Union  and 
free-State  sentiment  well  known  to  predominate  in 
Western  Texas,  and  which,  like  a  similar  sentiment  in 
West  Virginia,  will,  if  protected,  ultimately  organize 
that  section  into  a  free  State."     He  noted  the  impor- 


364        LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

tance  of  reopening  the  Mississippi  River  and  its  "  tend- 
ency upon  all  questions  connected  with  cotton,"  urging 
that  it  had  "become  necessary  to  crush  a  population  suf- 
ficiently numerous,  intelligent  and  warlike  to  constitute 
a  nation,"  and  continued: 

The  authority  of  the  Government  must  be  supported  by 
overwhelming  physical  force.  Our  foreign  relations  and 
financial  credit  also  imperatively  demand  that  the  military 
action  of  the  Government  should  be  prompt  and  irresistible. 
The  rebels  have  chosen  Virginia  as  their  battlefield,  and  it 
seems  proper  for  us  to  make  the  first  great  struggle  there. 
But  while  thus  directing  our  main  efforts,  it  is  necessary  to 
diminish  the  resistance  there  offered  us,  by  movements  on 
other  points  both  by  land  and  water. 

He  advises  "that  a  strong  movement  be  made  on 
the  Mississippi,  and  that  the  rebels  be  driven  out  of  Mis- 
souri," and  suggests  the  seizure  of  "  the  railroads  lead- 
ing from  Memphis  to  the  East"  by  a  movement  into 
Eastern  Tennessee,  sustaining  the  LTnion  people  there 
and  receiving  their  co-operation.  Getting  nearer  to  his 
own  field,  he  thinks  that  "  at  as  early  a  day  as  prac- 
ticable, it  would  be  well  to  protect  and  reopen  the  Bal- 
timore and  Ohio  Railroad,"  and  that  sufficient  garrisons 
should  occupy  Baltimore  and  Fortress  Monroe.  Cal- 
culating in  advance  of  experience,  he  judges  that  — 

The  importance  of  Harper's  Ferry  and  the  line  of  the 
Potomac  in  the  direction  of  Leesburg  will  be  very  materially 
diminished  so  soon  as  our  force  in  this  vicinity  becomes 
organized,  strong,  and  efficient,  because  no  capable  General 
will  cross  the  river  north  of  this  city,  when  we  have  a  strong 
army  here  to  cut  off  his  retreat. 

To  "  crush  the  rebellion  at  one  blow  "  —  to  "  ter- 
minate the  war  in  one  campaign  "  —  his  estimates  call 


ARMY  OF  THE  POTOMAC.  365 

for  two  hundred  and  seventy-three  thousand  soldiers  (at 
the  East)  for  "  the  main  army  of  operations,"  and  in 
addition,  ten  thousand  to  protect  the  Baltimore  and 
Ohio  Railway;  while  "five  thousand  will  garrison  Bal- 
timore, three  thousand  Fort  Monroe,  and  not  more  than 
twenty  thousand  will  be  necessary  at  the  utmost  for  the 
defense  of  Washington."  * 

As  to  the  West,  he  thinks  that  few  more  troops  will 
be  needed  in  Missouri;  that  if  Kentucky  "assume  the 
right  position,  not  more  than  twenty  thousand  will  be 
needed,  together  with  those  that  can  be  raised  in  that 
State  and  Eastern  Tennessee,  to  secure  the  latter  region 
and  its  railroads,  as  well  as  ultimately  to  occupy  Nash- 
ville" ;  and  that  the  troops  already  in  Western  Virginia, 
"  with  not  more  than  five  to  ten  thousand  from  Ohio 
and  Indiana,  should,  under  proper  management,  suffice 
for  its  protection."  He  then  tells  what  he  would  do 
with  "the  main  army  of  operations": 

I  propose,  with  the  force  which  I  have  requested,  not 
only  to  drive  the  enemy  out  of  Richmond,  but  to  occupy 
Charleston,  Savannah,  Montgomery,  Pensacola,  Mobile,  and 
New  Orleans ;  in  other  words,  to  move  into  the  heart  of  the 
enemy's  country  and  crush  the  rebellion  in  its  very  heart. 

To  lighten  the  burdens  of  the  Treasury,  he  sug- 
gests "  only  partial  payments  to  our  troops  when  in 
the  enemy's  country,"  and  giving  "  the  obligations  of 
the  United  States  for  such  supplies  as  may  be  there 
obtained." 

This  comprehensive  and  very  interesting  "  memo- 


*  After  the  completion  of  the  fortifications  around  Washington, 
a  few  months  later,  he  estimated  that  to  man  the  fifty-two  forts 
would  require  35,000. 


366        LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

randum  "  conveys  no  impression  of  the  slightest  con- 
cern on  McClellan's  part  about  the  present  security  of 
Washington.  Yet  only  four  days  after  this  review  of 
the  whole  field  of  army  operations  —  in  itself  unavoid- 
ably an  occasion  of  offense  to  the  General-in-chief,  if 
known  to  him  —  McClellan  wrote  to  Scott  directly 
(August  8th),  unsolicited,  another  review  of  the  mili- 
tary situation,  assuming  that  the  capital  is  in  "  immi- 
nent danger,"  and  urging  "with  the  utmost  earnestness', 
the  measures  which  he  thinks  needful  for  the  occasion. 
Next  day  the  Lieutenant-General  wrote  to  Secretary 
Cameron  (the  "  only  reply  "  he  intended  for  this  com- 
munication) : 

Had  Major-General  McClellan  presented  the  same  views 
in  person,  they  would  have  been  freely  entertained  and  dis- 
cussed. All  my  military  views  and  opinions  had  been  so 
presented  to  him  without  eliciting  any  remark,  in  our  few 
meetings,  which  I  have  in  vain  sought  to  multiply.  He 
has  stood  on  his  guard,  and  now  places  himself  on  record. 
Let  him  make  the  most  of  his  advantage.  Major-General 
McClellan  has  propagated,  in  high  quarters,  the  idea  ex- 
pressed in  the  letter  before  me,  that  Washington  was  not 
only  "  insecure,"  but  in  "  imminent  danger."  Relying  on 
our  numbers,  our  forts,  and  the  Potomac  River,  I  am  con- 
fident in  the  opposite  opinion ;  and  considering  the  stream  of 
new  regiments  that  is  pouring  in  upon  us  (before  this  alarm 
could  have  reached  their  homes),  I  have  not  the  slightest 
apprehension  for  the  safety  of  the  Government  here. 

Having  now  been  long  unable  to  mount  a  horse,  or  to 
walk  more  than  a  few  paces  at  a  time,  and,  consequently, 
being  unable  to  review  troops  —  much  less  to  direct  them 
in  battle  —  in  short,  being  broken  down  by  many  particular 
hurts,  besides  the  general  infirmities  of  age  —  I  feel  that  I 
have  become  an  incumbrance  to  the  army  as  well  as  to 
myself,  and  that  I  ought  to  give  way  to  a  younger  com- 
mander—  to  seek  the  palliations  of  physical  pain  and  ex- 
haustion.   Accordingly,  I  must  beg  the  President,  at  the 


ARMY  OF  THE  POTOMAC.  367 

earliest  moment,  to  allow  me  to  be  placed  on  the  officers' 
retired  list,  and  then  quietly  to  lay  myself  up  —  probably  for- 
ever —  somewhere  in  or  about  New  York.  But  wherever  I 
may  spend  my  little  remainder  of  life,  my  frequent  and  latest 
prayer  will  be :    God  save  the  Union  I" 

The  President  anxiously  endeavored  to  dissuade  the 
Lieutenant-General  from  a  step  so  unwelcome,  and  to 
restore  better  relations  between  the  two  officers.  The 
immediate  effect  appears  in  the  following  autograph 
letter  (copied  by  the  writer,  with  Secretary  Stanton's 
consent,  in  1864,  but  not  published): 

Headquarters  of  the  Army, 
Washington,  August  12,  1861. 
The  Honorable,  the  Secretary  of  War: 

Sir  :  —  On  the  10th  instant  I  was  kindly  requested  by  the 
President  to  withdraw  my  letter  to  you,  of  the  9th,  in  reply 
to  one  I  had  received  from  Major-General  McClellan,  of  the 
day  before  —  the  President,  at  the  same  time,  showing  me 
a  letter  to  him  from  General  McClellan,  in  which,  at  the 
instance  of  the  President,  he  offered  to  withdraw  the  original 
letter  on  which  I  had  animadverted. 

While  the  President  was  yet  with  me,  on  that  occasion, 
a  servant  handed  me  a  letter,  which  proved  to  be  an  unau- 
thenticated  copy,  under  a  blank  cover,  of  the  same  letter  from 
General  McC.  to  the  President.  This  slight  was  not  without 
its  influence  on  my  mind. 

The  President's  visit,  however,  was  from  the  patriotic 
purpose  of  healing  differences,  and  so  much  did  I  honor  his 
motive  that  I  deemed  it  due  to  him  to  hold  his  proposition 
under  consideration  for  some  little  time.  I  deeply  regret 
that,  notwithstanding  my  high  respect  for  the  opinions  and 
wishes  of  the  President,  I  can  not  withdraw  the  letter  in 
question,  for  these  reasons: 

1.  The  original  offense  given  to  me  by  Major-General 
McClellan  (see  his  letter  of  the  8th  instant)  seems  to  have 
been  the  result  of  deliberation  between  him  and  some  of  the 
members  of  the  Cabinet,  by  whom  all  the  greater  war  ques- 
tions are  to  be  settled  without  resort  to,  or  consultation  with, 


368       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

me,  the  nominal  General-in-chief  of  the  army.  In  further 
proof  of  this  neglect  —  although  it  is  unofficially  known  that, 
in  the  last  week  (or  six  days),  many  regiments  have  arrived, 
and  others  have  changed  their  positions  —  some  to  a  consid- 
erable distance  —  not  one  of  these  movements  has  been  re- 
ported to  me  (or  anything  else)  by  Major-General  McClel- 
lan;  —  while  it  is  believed,  and,  I  may  add,  known,  that  he 
is  in  frequent  communication  with  portions  of  the  Cabinet, 
and  on  matters  appertaining  to  me.  That  freedom  of  access 
and  consultation  have,  very  naturally,  deluded  the  junior 
General  into  a  feeling  of  indifference  toward*  his  senior. 

2.  With  such  supports  on  his  part,  it  would  be  as  idle 
for  me,  as  it  would  be  against  the  dignity  of  my  years,  to 
be  filing  daily  complaints  against  an  ambitious  junior,  who, 
independent  of  the  extensive  advantages  alluded  to,  has, 
unquestionably,  very  high  qualifications  for  military  com- 
mand. I  trust  they  may  achieve  crowning  victories  in  behalf 
of  the  Union. 

3.  I  have,  in  my  letter  to  you  of  the  9th  instant,  already 
said  enough  on  —  to  others  —  the  disgusting  subject,  my 
many  physical  infirmities.  I  will  here  only  add  that,  borne 
down  as  I  am  by  them,  I  should,  unavoidably,  be  in  the 
way  at  headquarters,  even  if  my  abilities  for  war  were  now 
greater  than  when  I  was  young. 

I  have  the  honor  to  be,  sir,  with  high  respect,  your  most 
obedient  servant,  Winfield  Scott. 

Eventually,  however,  the  Lieutenant-General  con- 
sented for  the  present  to  remain  at  his  post. 

On  the  17th  of  August  the  troops  of  the  hitherto 
separate  departments  of  Washington  and  Northeastern 
Virginia,  together  with  those  serving  in  the  Shenan- 
doah Valley,  on  the  Upper  Potomac,  and  in  Maryland 
and  Delaware,  were  consolidated  under  the  name  of 
the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  with  headquarters  at  Wash- 
ington, to  be  under  the  command  of  Major-General 


*  The  words  "  superiority  over  "  had  been  erased,  and  "  indif- 
ference toward  "  written  above. 


ARMY  OF  THE  POTOMAC.  369 

McClellan.  Before  the  close  of  August  sanguine  peo- 
ple were  expecting  a  speedy  and  victorious  advance  of 
the  reorganized  army.  What  were  the  numbers  and 
condition  of  the  force  under  Johnston?  McClellan  had 
an  elaborate  spy  system,  which  ought  to  have  given  him 
exact  information.  But  the  Comte  de  Paris  says  the 
General  singularly  overrated  the  strength  and  disci- 
pline of  the  opposing  army,  giving  Johnston  a  total  of 
150,000,  "whereas  in  reality  on  the  31st  of  October  it 
only  numbered  66,243  in  all,  of  whom  only  44,131  were 
present  in  the  field  "  ;  and  was  "  equally  mistaken  in 
regard  to  the  discipline  of  his  adversaries."  Jefferson 
Davis  (as  he  says  in  his  Rise  and  Fall  of  the  Confederacy) 
visited  Johnston  at  Fairfax  Courthouse  on  the  1st  of 
October,  and  found  that,  in  spite  of  the  frequent  rein- 
forcements sent  him,  he  had  still  a  force  not  much 
larger  than  on  the  21st  of  July.  We  learn  elsewhere 
that  desertions  were  numerous.  In  fact,  the  difference 
in  effective  men  was  more  than  three  to  one  in  favor  of 
McClellan's  army. 

On  the  10th  of  September,  the  President,  the  Sec- 
retary of  War,  and  the  Governor  of  Pennsylvania  vis- 
ited certain  regiments  from  that  State  in  their  camp. 
General  McClellan  was  present,  and  shook  hands  with 
officers  and  men.  A  soldier  ventured  to  say  to  him: 
"  General,  we  are  anxious  to  wipe  out  Bull  Run;  hope 
you  will  allow  us  to  do  it  soon?"  The  prompt  reply 
was:   "  Very  soon,  if  the  enemy  does  not  run." 

September  passed  away;  October  was  passing;  and 

all  the  while  his  army  was  increasing.     There  were  daily 

regimental  parades;  less  frequent  but  repeated  brigade 

reviews;  reviews  of  infantry,  artillery,  cavalry.    Magnifi- 

24 


370       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

cent  was  the  pageant  of  seventy  thousand  men  arrayed 
on  the  slopes  and  meadows  of  Virginia  on  an  October 
day,  closing,  as  the  onlooking  multitude  swarmed  back 
towards  the  capital,  with  the  music  of  heavy  Confed- 
erate guns  at  Fairfax  Courthouse  —  just  a  short  march 
away.  Was  not  this  a  final  display  preluding  earnest 
battle?  An  authoritative  intimation  of  such  import  was 
received  by  Dr.  Russell,  whose  account  of  the  disaster 
three  months  before  had  given  such  offense,  and  who 
was  waiting  to  do  justice  to  the  return  blow. 

On  the  20th  reconnoissances  were  made  all  along 
the  line.  Johnston's  left,  extending  to  Leesburg,  had 
been  occupying  Falls  Church,  with  pickets  well  ad- 
vanced toward  the  Chain  Bridge,  but  in  all  that  quar- 
ter up  to  and  beyond  Dranesville,  to  which  McCall's 
division  was  sent,  no  enemy  was  now  discernible. 
Smith,  whose  division  camped  near  the  Chain  Bridge, 
accompanied  by  McClellan,  Fitzjohn  Porter,  and  Han- 
cock, reconnoitered  to  within  two  or  three  miles  of 
Fairfax  Courthouse,  where  the  enemy  seemed  to  be 
in  some  force,  the  only  Confederates  seen  on  this  wide 
excursion.  Heintzelman  at  the  same  time  sent  out  a 
reconnoitering  party  from  his  post  below  Alexandria, 
with  like  result.  From  General  Banks,  at  the  other 
extreme,  on  the  Upper  Potomac,  came  the  simultaneous 
report  that  the  enemy  had  moved  away  from  Leesburg. 
Stone,  at  Poolesville,  on  the  immediate  left  of  Banks, 
was  informed  by  McClellan  cf  the  presence  of  McCall 
at  Dranesville,  and  ordered  to  keep  a  good  lookout  on 
Leesburg  to  see  if  this  movement  had  the  effect  to  drive 
the  enemy  away.  "  Perhaps  a  slight  demonstration  on 
your  part,"  it  was  added,  "would  have  the  effect  to  move 


ARMY  OF  THE  POTOMAC.  371 

them."  Stone  reported  in  the  evening  that  he  had 
made  a  feint  of  crossing,  and  started  a  reconnoitering 
party  towards  Leesburg  from  Harrison's  Island  (in  the 
Potomac  River,  between  Poolesville  and  Leesburg); 
and  that  the  party  returned  without  meeting  any  enemy, 
but  had  come  in  sight  of  what  they  thought  to  be  a 
small  encampment.  Colonel  Devens  was  dispatched 
with  three  hundred  men  at  midnight  to  surprise  this 
supposed  camp  —  which  proved  to  be  only  an  orchard 
or  a  twilight  illusion.  Devens  was  ordered  to  continue 
his  observation  in  that  quarter,  if  he  found  himself 
secure,  and  Colonel  Raymond  Lee  was  sent  with  part 
of  his  regiment  to  Ball's  Bluff,  on  the  Virginia  side,  to 
cover  the  return  of  Devens. 

About  11  o'clock  in  the  morning  Stone  reported 
to  McClellan:  "  The  enemy  have  been  engaged  opposite 
Harrison's  Island;  our  men  behaving  admirably." 
Their  unexpected  assailants  were  the  advance  of  Evans' 
brigade,  four  thousand  strong,  of  the  Confederate 
left,  which  had  retired  from  Leesburg.  Stone  ordered 
Colonel  E.  D.  Baker  across  from  Harrison's  Island, 
with  reinforcements,  to  support  Devens  and  to  assume 
command  —  the  combined  forces  numbering  nearly  two 
thousand.  McClellan  and  Stone  were  in  close  com- 
munication all  the  time  that  Baker  and  his  slender  force 
were  fighting  gallantly  and  desperately,  unaided,  on  the 
verge  of  a  steep  bluff,  with  no  adequate  provision  for 
recrossing  the  wide  river  below.  Baker  fell.  His  men 
were  scattered  and  pursued  with  slaughter  —  many 
driven  down  the  bluff,  shot  at  its  foot,  or  drowned. 
Nearly  three  hundred  lost  their  lives  here  or  on  the 
field  above,  and  many  more  were  wounded  or  captured. 


372        LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

he  Ball's  Bluff  calamity  was  keenly  felt.  Intensity 
was  added  to  the  feeling  by  the  loss  of  Senator  Baker 
—  not  an  inexperienced  "political  general,"  but  one 
who  had  served  with  credit  as  commander  of  a  regiment 
in  the  Mexican  War  —  a  popular  orator,  and  one  of  the 
earliest  Springfield  friends  of  President  Lincoln,  whose 
grief  was  uncontrollable  when  news  first  came  of  this 
great  personal  loss.  "  I  was  much  criticised  and 
blamed  for  this  unfortunate  affair/  wrote  McClellan, 
twenty-five  years  after,  "  while  I  was  in  no  sense  re- 
sponsible for  it."*  In  effect,  the  official  responsibility 
was  made  to  rest  on  General  Stone,  who  was  soon  after 
arrested,  under  an  order  of  Secretary  Stanton,  and 
finally  released,  after  many  months,  without  the  trial 
for  which  he  asked,  or  being  informed  as  to  the  exact 
cause  of  this  disfavor. 

On  the  22d,  McClellan  visited  the  camp  at  Pooles- 
ville,  and  after  personal  investigation  of  the  situation, 
decided  to  withdraw  from  the  Virginia  side  altogether, 
in  that  quarter,  and  the  old  positions  were  promptly 
resumed.  The  French  Prince,  Comte  de  Paris,  who 
was  later  of  McClellan's  military  household,  said  in 
his  elaborate  and  faithful  history  of  the  war: 

The  check  at  Ball's  Bluff  cut  short  all  the  projects  for  the 
campaign  which  the  organization  of  the  army,  the  season, 
and  the  condition  of  the  ground  seemed  to  impose  on  Gen- 
eral McClellan.  That  incident  confirmed  his  mind  in  the 
false  estimate  he  had  formed  of  the  strength  of  his  adver- 
sary ;  notwithstanding  the  reports  of  all  the  reconnoitering 
parties  he  had  sent  out  on  the  20th,  who  had  not  seen  the 
enemy  in  force  anywhere,  he  did  not  dare  to  put  his  army 
in  motion,  and  thus  lost  the  best  opportunity  he  ever  had  of 
beginning  a  successful  and  decisive  campaign. 

*  McClellan's  "  Own  Story."  p.  190. 


SCOTT  RETIRES— McCLEELAN  CHIEF.    373 

At  this  juncture,  Lieutenant-General  Scott,  in  a 
letter  to  the  Secretary  of  War  (October  31st),  claimed 
his  legal  right  to  be  placed  on  the  retired  list.  He 
regretted  to  withdraw  from  the  orders  of  a  President 
who,  he  said,  had  always  treated  him  with  distinguished 
kindness  and  courtesy,  and  whom  he  knew,  upon  much 
personal  intercourse,  to  be  "  patriotic  without  sectional 
partialities  or  prejudices,  to  be  highly  conscientious  in 
the  performance  of  every  duty,  and  of  unrivalled  activity 
and  perseverance." 

The  Cabinet  unanimously  approved  the  President's 
selection  of  General  McClellan  as  Scott's  successor. 
With  complimentary  formalities  and  addresses  —  the 
President  and  Cabinet  calling  on  the  veteran  Lieu- 
tenant-General  at  his  residence  for  the  purpose  on  the 
1  st  of  November  —  his  retirement  was  consummated. 
In  apology  for  the  inaction  of  the  main  army  hitherto, 
it  was  alleged  by  particular  friends  of  McClellan,  and 
credited  by  Secretary  Chase,  that  he  had  been  ham- 
pered and  obstructed  by  the  Lieutenant-General.  The 
President  had  shown  a  generous  confidence  in  the 
young  General,  and  hoped  for  speedy  action.  Yet  the 
entire  month  of  November,  with  constantly  auspicious 
weather  and  roads,  passed  with  the  army  of  nearly  two 
hundred  thousand  still  in  camp. 

Adjourning  in  August,  after  providing  the  Execu- 
tive with  ample  war  resources,  Congress  little  expected 
that,  on  returning  in  December,  it  would  find  the  in- 
surgent army  still  menacing  the  Capital.  The  Pres- 
ident was  blamed.  It  is  as  inconceivable  that  he  should 
not  have  been  as  that  he  himself  should  have  been  fully 
satisfied  with  the  conduct  of  his  chief  General.     This 


374       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

source  of  discontent  and  certain  incidents  of  the  dis- 
aster at  Ball's  Bluff  led  to  the  creation  (in  December) 
of  a  joint  Congressional  Committee  on  the  Conduct  of 
the  War,  consisting  of  Senators  Wade,  Chandler  and 
Andrew  Johnson  (the  latter  being  soon  succeeded  by 
Senator  Wright,  of  Indiana),  and  Representatives 
D.  W.  Gooch,  J.  Covode,  G.  W.  Julian  and  M.  F.  Odell. 
It  was  not  another  Aulic  Council,  or  in  any  sense  its 
parallel.  Attempting  no  control  of  military  move- 
ments, it  gave  searching  investigation  to  accomplished 
events.  The  testimony  thus  gathered,  valuable  to  the 
historian,  was  from  time  to  time  submitted  to  the  Pres- 
ident. 

Popular  impatience  with  army  inaction  had  found 
some  relief  in  glorifying  the  activity  of  Commodore 
Wilkes  in  arresting  Mason  and  Slidell;  yet  in  his  mes- 
sage the  President  says  nothing  of  this  naval  exploit, 
or  of  its  embarrassing  sequel.  After  paying  a  high 
tribute  to  the  retired  Lieutenant-General,  he  continues: 

With  the  retirement  of  General  Scott  came  the  Execu- 
tive duty  of  appointing,  in  his  stead,  a  General-in-chief  of 
the  army.  It  is  a  fortunate  circumstance  that  neither  in 
council  nor  country  was  there,  so  far  as  I  know,  any  differ- 
ence of  opinion  as  to  the  proper  person  to  be  selected.  The 
retiring  chief  repeatedly  expressed  his  judgment  in  favor  of 
General  MClellan  for  the  position,  and  in  this  the  nation 
seemed  to  give  a  unanimous  concurrence. 

The  Fremont  trouble  is  not  mentioned,  or  more 
nearly  alluded  to  than  (just  after  speaking  of  the  block- 
ade) in  these  words,  among  which  "  slavery "  is  not 
one: 

So,  also,  obeying  the  dictates  of  prudence,  as  well  as  the 
obligations  of  law,  instead  of  transcending,  I  have  adhered 


PRESIDENT  AND  CONGRESS.  375 

to  the  act  of  Congress  to  confiscate  property  used  for  insur- 
rectionary purposes.  If  a  new  law  upon  the  same  subject 
shall  be  proposed,  its  propriety  will  be  duly  considered.  The 
Union  must  be  preserved ;  and  hence  all  indispensable  means 
must  be  employed.  We  should  not  be  in  haste  to  determine 
that  radical  and  extreme  measures,  which  may  reach  the 
loyal  as  well  as  the  disloyal,  are  indispensable. 

He  speaks  more  at  length  in  an  earlier  part  of  the 
message  of  some  provision  for  colored  persons  affected 
by  this  first  confiscation  act,  and  urges  the  policy  cf 
providing  for  the  colonization,  not  only  of  the  newly 
enfranchised,  but  of  all  their  race  in  this  country  who 
might  choose  to  join  them.  What  he  said  of  the  rela- 
tions of  labor  and  capital  was  notable  and  especially 
suggestive  in  regard  to  that  anomaly  in  economics, 
labor  "  owned  "  by  capital. 

One  passage  in  Secretary  Cameron's  report  as  orig- 
inally presented  was  quite  summarily  effaced  by  the 
President  —  namely: 

If  it  should  be  found  that  the  men  who  have  been  held 
by  the  rebels  as  slaves  are  capable  of  bearing  arms  and  per- 
forming efficient  military  service,  it  is  the  right,  and  may 
become  the  duty,  of  this  Government  to  arm  and  equip  them, 
and  employ  their  services  against  the  rebels,  under  proper 
military  regulations,  discipline,  and  command. 

Arming  the  blacks  was  a  troublesome  matter,  to 
be  for  the  present  postponed.  As  to  the  war,  the  Pres- 
ident said  in  his  message  that  he  had  "  thought  it  proper 
to  keep  the  integrity  of  the  Union  prominent  as  the 
primary  object  of  the  contest  on  our  part,  leaving  all 
questions  which  are  not  of  vital  military  importance 
to  the  more  deliberate  action  of  the  Legislature." 
Events  were  tending  "  plainly  in  the  right  direction." 


<tf6        LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

"  South  of  the  line,  noble  little  Delaware  led  off  right 
from  the  first.  Maryland  was  made  to  seem  against 
the  Union.  Our  soldiers  were  assaulted,  bridges  were 
burned,  and  railroads  torn  up  within  her  limits,  and 
we  were  many  days,  at  one  time,  without  the  ability  to 
bring  a  single  regiment  over  her  soil  to  the  Capital. 
Now  her  bridges  and  railroads  are  repaired  and  open 
to  the  Government;  she  already  gives  seven  regiments 
to  the  cause  of  the  Union  and  none  to  the  enemy; 
and  her  people,  at  a  regular  election,  have  sustained 
the  Union  by  a  larger  majority  and  a  larger  aggregate 
vote  than  they  ever  before  gave  to  any  candidate  or 
any  question.  Kentucky,  too,  for  some  time  in  doubt, 
is  now  decidedly,  and  I  think  unchangeably,  ranged  on 
the  side  of  the  Union.  Missouri  is  comparatively  quiet, 
and  I  believe  can  not  again  be  overrun  by  the  insurrec- 
tionists. .  .  .  After  a  somewhat  bloody  struggle  o£ 
months,  winter  closes  on  the  Union  people  of  West- 
ern Virginia,  leaving  them  masters  of  their  own  coun- 
try." A  footing  had  been  obtained  on  the  southern 
coast  at  Hatteras,  Port  Royal,  Tybee  Island,  near 
Savannah,  and  Ship  Island;  and  there  were  some  gen- 
eral accounts  of  popular  movements,,  in  behalf  of  the 
Union,  in  North  Carolina  and  Tennessee.  "  These 
things  demonstrate  that  the  cause  of  the  Union  is 
advancing  steadily  and  certainly  southward." 

A  marked  change  in  the  tone  and  temper  of  Con- 
gress in  regard  to  the  vexed  question  since  the  close 
of  the  special  session  was  at  once  manifest.  In  advance 
of  the  message  Senator  Trumbull  gave  notice  of  a  bill 
—  which  he  introduced  on  the  5th  — "  for  the  confis- 
cation of  the  property  of  the  rebels,  and  giving  freedom 


THE  TRENT  TROUBLE.  377 

to  the  persons  they  held  in  slavery."  Representative 
Elliot,  of  Massachusetts,  also,  on  the  first  day  of  the 
session,  offered  resolutions  aimed  at  the  latter  object, 
which  the  House,  by  56  ayes  and  70  noes,  refused  to' 
lay  on  the  table.  Messrs  Stevens  and  Campbell,  of 
Pennsylvania,  each  presented  similar  resolutions  at  the 
same  sitting.  On  the  other  hand,  a  resolution  reaffirm- 
ing the  conservative  Crittenden  resolution,  which 
passed  the  House  with  only  two  dissenting  votes  in 
July,  was  laid  on  the  table  (December  3d)  on  motion 
of  Thaddeus  Stevens,  71  to  65.  On  the  16th,  a  bill 
to  abolish  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia  was 
introduced  by  Senator  Wilson.  The.se  and  several  later 
demonstrations  against  the  Confederate  corner-stone 
occupied  much  of  the  attention  of  both  Houses  through- 
out the  session. 

Commodore  Wilkes  had  been  thanked  in  a  personal 
letter  by  Secretary  Welles,  and  applauded  in  his  official 
report,  for  the  arrest  of  the  Confederate  Ambassadors, 
Mason  and  Slidell.  With  great  haste  and  abundant 
zeal  the  House  of  Representatives  by  resolution  unani- 
mously commended  the  act.  The  press  and  the  people 
had  found  no  hero  deemed  so  worthy  of  their  worship 
since  Anderson  exchanged  Moultrie  for  Sumter.  The 
President  could  share  the  popular  feeling  without  for- 
getting his  official  responsibility.  When  he  had  thought 
for  a  moment  on  first  hearing  news  of  the  exploit,  he 
said:  "These  men  must  be  given  up.  We  have  no 
right  to  stop  a  British  mail-ship  to  search  for  contra- 
band passengers,  whatever  was  formerly  done  by  Britain 
herself." 

The   British  were  indignant  when  they  heard  the 


378       LINCOLN  AND  HIS  PRESIDENCY. 

tale  told  by  the  Trent's  captain,  and  there  was  a  gen- 
eral outcry  for  war.  British  regiments  were  promptly 
dispatched  to  Canada  and  more  British  warships  were 
ordered  to  our  Atlantic  coast.  Restitution  and  apol- 
ogy were  demanded  with  all  possible  haste.  Happily 
—  so  it  seems  —  there  was  no  submarine  cable  to  speed 
irrevocable  words.  Weeks  instead  of  hours  measured 
the  period  of  negotiation,  giving  leisure,  as  the  corre- 
spondence went  on,  to  calculate  the  proportion,  in  case 
of  war,  between  cause  and  consequence. 

The  international  crisis  gave  exultant  hope  to  the 
Confederates  and  their  friends.  The  Opposition  mem- 
bers of  Congress  assumed  the  part  of  champions  of 
Wilkes,  and  scorned  any  thought  of  yielding  to  English 
insolence  and  menace.  They  were  delighted  to  believe 
the  Administration  was  in  a  dilemma  of  which  either 
horn  would  be  its  fate.  There  were  leading  Republican 
members,  too,  who  —  willing  to  take  up  the  burden 
of  another  war  if  that  were  necessary  —  were  for  the 
moment  intent  upon  sustaining  the  action  of  the  gallant 
Commodore. 

The  decision  was  communicated  to  Congress  on  the 
30th  of  December.  Secretary  Seward's  final  letter  in 
the  case,  under  date  of  the  26th,  conceding  that  the 
detention  of  the  Trent  was  technically  wrong,  disclaimed 
the  act  as  unauthorized  by  the  Government,  and  agreed 
to  surrender  the  prisoners  into  British  custody.  No 
other  reparation  or  apology  was  offered,  and  this  was 
promptly  accepted  as  an  amicable  conclusion  of  the 
whole  matter.  "  This  concession  of  the  Federal  Gov- 
ernment," says  Alfriend  in  his  Life  of  Jefferson  Davis, 
"  was  the  first  of  numerous  disappointments  in  store 


THE  TRENT  TROUBLE.  379 

for  the  Southern  people  in  the  hope,  so  universally  in- 
dulged, of  foreign  intervention." 

In  his  Diary,  the  exiled  Polish  Count,  Gurowski, 
then  employed  in  the  State  Department  as  a  trans- 
lator,—  a  man  much  given  to  extravagant  and  cynical 
utterances,  yet  trustworthy  as  to  the  direct  statement 
of  facts  within  his  own  knowledge, —  wrote  in  Decem- 
ber, 1 861: 

The  Trent  affair  finished.  We  are  a  little  humbled,  but  it 
was  expedient  to  terminate  it  so.  .  .  .  Europe  will  applaud 
us,  and  the  relation  with  England  will  become  clarified.  Per- 
haps England  would  not  have  been  so  stiff  in  this  Trent 
affair  but  for  the  fixed  idea  .  .  .  that  Seward  wishes  to 
pick  a  quarrel  with  England.  The  first  weeks  of  Seward's 
premiership  point  that  way. 

Mr.  Seward  has  the  honors  of  the  Trent  affair.  It  is 
well  as  it  is ;  the  argument  is  smart,  but  a  little  too  long,  and 
not  in  a  genuine  diplomatic  style.  But  Lincoln  ought  to 
have  a  little  credit  for  it,  as  from  the  start  he  was  for 'giving 
the  traitors  up. 

Mr.  Seward's  review  of  the  case  was  so  skillfully 
done  as  to  soothe  the  public  mind  and  relieve  its  dissat- 
isfaction. While  making  the  concession  seem  to  turn 
on  the  point  that  Wilkes  had  not  brought  the  Trent 
to  port  for  judicial  action,  he  courteously  hinted  to 
Lord  John  Russell  that  the  American  Government  was 
more  consistent  in  granting,  than  the  British  Govern- 
ment in  making,  the  present  demand. 


